Although it has so far invested around EUR 5 million in the construction of the golf course in Luštica, the company Luštica Development is blocked in the further implementation of that investment until the issue of water supply for watering the grassy areas of the first real championship golf course with 18 holes in Montenegro is resolved in a long-term way.
This was told to Vijesti by Maša Radulović, project coordinator and manager for corporate relations at Luštica Development.
– The most efficient way to solve that problem is to use purified wastewater from the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) for the municipalities of Tivat and Kotor, which is located in Krtoli, and we were on the threshold of concluding a contract with the WWTP company and the Municipality of Tivat. However, WWTP with its effluent (purified wastewater leaving the plant) cannot currently meet the required parameters in terms of the amount of salt that effluent contains, i.e. its salinity is higher than is acceptable for using that water for watering the golf course. Therefore, we proposed to enable us to use certain amounts of potable water from the water supply system of the Municipality of Tivat, with which we would “dilute” the amount of salt in the effluent from the WWTP and bring it to the prescribed standards, as well as the possibility of obtaining water from the city’s water supply system for golf irrigation terrain in extraordinary circumstances when the WWTP for any technical reason cannot deliver the required amount of effluent to us – stated Radulović.
She added that their proposal has not yet been accepted by the Municipality of Tivat, although the company is convinced that there is no danger that due to their needs for irrigation of the golf course, at any time and under any circumstances, the water supply of the citizens of Tivat could be threatened.
Radulović said that Luštica Development built almost all the necessary irrigation network on the future golf course, which will cover 1.1 million square meters, a smaller artificial lake with a capacity of 33,000 cubic meters was built, and another lake with a capacity of 27,000 cubic meters is being built, which will serve as an additional water reserve for mitigating the salinity of WWTP effluent and direct irrigation of the grass around 18 holes on the golf course. However, until the final resolution of the main issue, which is the achievement of a long-term agreement on water supply with the municipality and the state, the company cannot continue this significant investment for it and the entire Montenegrin tourism.
– The plan was to complete the first phase in 2022 – the so-called driving range, training ground and a couple of holes of the golf course, but this cannot happen without a solved water supply. This is why we have big losses because we have already spent about five million euros in the works carried out so far on the golf course, we are paying contractors, consultants and planners who are not in a position to finish the work for which we hired them and all together, we are wasting time and money , and Montenegro is late in getting an offer that will significantly improve its tourist offer and attract high-paying clientele to come here even in the months outside the main season – the interviewee of Vijesti points out.
She clarified that even if the issue of water supply were to be resolved tomorrow, it is already too late for the “driving range” and the first holes of the new golf course to be ready for 2023, because the process and timing of growing and planting the special grass that covers the surfaces on the playing field , must be strictly respected and it cannot be transplanted to the field all the time, but only at certain times of the year.
– Because of all this, it is important for us to have the opportunity to explain all aspects of this problem to the local administration of Tivat in a reasoned way, to explain to them why there is no danger that, under any circumstances, the city of Tivat and its citizens will have problems with water supply due to irrigation in the future of our golf course. That simply cannot happen – pointed out Radulović, adding that the company is ready to pay for the additional quantities of drinking water that it may have to take from the Regional Water Supply at the same price at which the local company Vodovod I Kanalizacija Tivat takes water from that system.
Radulović emphasized that when the golf course is completed, not only the Luštica Bay complex but also the whole of Montenegro will receive a completely new offer that will have a decisive impact on the further accelerated development of tourism and the attraction of high-paying clientele from all over the world who will come here throughout the year, and not only in several months of the main season.
370 million invested so far
Since the beginning of the project to build an entire new tourist town on about seven million square meters of leased state land in 2013, until today about 10% of the contents planned for the first phase of Luštica Bay, which covers about 4.5 million square meters, have been completed. The Marina Village settlement on the coast of Trašte Bay around the first of the two marinas planned in Luštica bay is almost completely finished, and the largest new facility to be built there in the next two to three years is the second Marina Hotel, after the first large hotel – The Chedi Lustica Bay.
– So far, EUR 370 million has been invested in the implementation of the Luštica bay project. The first of two marinas with a capacity of 115 berths, a five-star hotel with 110 accommodation units, 380 residential units in villas, townhouses and apartments, a wellness and SPA center, a number of restaurants, shops and other various services, a promenade along the sea was built. Of 1.8 kilometers, children’s playgrounds, an open-air gym, a sports complex with two tennis courts and two padel courts, as well as a basketball, volleyball and multifunctional playground, i.e. a bocce ball court, an ambulance, a pharmacy, a fire department… – said Radulović.
The central settlement is also intensively developing on the site of the former barracks in Radovići, while the development of the new part of the Beach Village complex, southeast of the Marina settlement, towards the bay of Pržna, should begin soon.
The company Luštica Development currently has 260 employees, while The Chedi hotel has around 200 more in the main season. Contractors and subcontractors engaged in the construction of the complex, with the current pace of work, employ an additional 200 people.
The settlement of Centrale should become the focal point of the entire Luštica Bay complex, where residents and visitors of other parts of the new tourist town will have at their disposal most of the central activities and services that every town has – from the police, post office, banks, firefighters, medical care… Thus, Luštica Development has already established its internal fire and rescue service here, which has ten members, and is equipped with a brand new small and larger emergency fire fighting vehicle, as well as the so-called with an accompanying vehicle – a tank truck. A modern reanomobile was also purchased for the internal Emergency Medical Service, which was established in the meantime and employs two doctors and four nurses. The residents of Luštica Bay and the local population in Radovići and this part of Krtol can count on their help and interventions.
Complex of sports fields
– In the settlement of Centrale, a whole complex of new sports fields has already been built, so we want to see on them, in addition to our residents and clients, the local population and Tivat and sports clubs from Krtol. Luštica Bay is not and does not want to be an isolated resort, but to live and function with the best and most direct communication and cooperation with the environment and the local community, because it is the local population and a good relationship with it that is a kind of guarantee and “insurance” of the success of such large projects – explains Radulović.
She added that the company continues to implement the CSR program of direct financial support to the local community, which is worth 150,000 euros per year. This program is implemented in cooperation with the local community of Krtoli and the Municipality of Tivat, and through it, various projects to improve local infrastructure, public facilities, support culture, sports and various other social activities.
The company said that some of their business decisions are influenced by the changes taking place in the Montenegrin legislative and fiscal environment itself. Thus, the Government’s decision to abolish the possibility of supplying foreign yachts with duty-free fuel, influenced the abandonment of the original intention to build a large station for supplying yachts with fuel on Cape Tri Krsta as part of the future maritime border crossing for the two Luštica Bay marinas. The maritime border crossing will be built, but with smaller capacities of the accompanying pumping station, sufficient to cover the internal needs of vessels staying in the two local marinas.
They are planning to build the first underwater military museum
Luštica Development is also working on the realization of another, for Montenegrin circumstances, premier undertaking – the creation of the first underwater military and naval museum in these areas.
The Intention is to sink several old warships at the bottom of Trašte Bay, in positions outside the main waterways, which will serve here as a diving attraction in the future.
Radulović explained that this is something that has been practiced for a long time in the world, where some countries like the USA have special programs for creating artificial reefs by sinking old warships that have been previously cleaned of all substances harmful to nature, such as oil and oil, asbestos, PCBs and other things.
– Such ships, sunk to the bottom of the sea at depths accessible to recreational divers for diving without the use of gas mixtures and other special equipment, serve as an attraction for diving tourism, and are also a new habitat for numerous plant and animal species, so on these wrecks marine life literally thrives. We would like to do something similar in Trašte Bay, where the seabed is mostly sandy and muddy, without pronounced reefs and weirs that attract various types of fish, crabs and other organisms. In this way, respecting the strictest ecological standards, we would create an additional attraction that would attract tourists – divers, as well as marine flora and fauna that would find a new habitat on sunken ships – explains the management of Luštica Development, local media says.
