The biggest capital investment that will be completed in 2023 in Montenegro is the Kotor – Lovćen cable car, which should already in June transport the first passengers from the coast in Kotor to Lovćen, offering them a magnificent view of the entire Bay of Kotor. Passengers will climb to 1,350 meters above sea level in a 12-minute drive.
The project is implemented as part of a private-public partnership between the Government and a consortium consisting of the Podgorica company “Novi Volvox” and the Italian “Leitner”. As a concessionaire, the consortium will build and use the cable car and related facilities for 30 years, after which it will belong to the state. The goal of the project is to improve the tourist offer, and according to the contract, it will work for at least seven months a year. The construction of this cable car has been announced for almost 20 years. The first cable car Kotor – Lovćen was built in 1916 by the Austro-Hungarian occupation government. After the war, most of the equipment was stolen or destroyed and the cable car was never in operation again, although there were several attempts to build it for tourist purposes.
News reports that the most valuable capital investments that will begin this year are the construction of the Gvozd wind farm, which is estimated at 82 million euros, as well as the continuation of the Solari 5000+ project, which foresees the installation of five thousand new mini solar power plants on the roofs of houses and commercial and business buildings. The Solari 3000+ and 500+ projects, which were started in June last year, should be completed by April. Both of these projects are implemented by the state-owned Elektroprivreda, and “Gvozd” will be the first state-owned energy project after 40 years.
This wind farm should be built and in operation by the end of 2024. One of the most significant capital projects that should start this year, not in terms of investment but in terms of environmental impact, is the heating of Pljevlja, which has been awaited for 40 years since the thermal power plant began operating in this city. Due to the operation of the thermal power plant as well as a large number of boiler houses and homes that use coal, the air pollution in this city is up to 12 times higher than allowed, and last week those records were broken as well. Representatives of Elektroprivreda Crne Gore and the consortium consisting of Roto-Term Pljevlja and Synergy Tech DOO Belgrade signed a contract on the heating of Pljevlja in November last year, the value of which is 2.5 million euros. According to the contract, the documentation for the entire project should be completed this year and the first phase of work on the main heat pipe from the thermal power plant should begin. The actual heating of the city would begin at the end of 2024, when the environmental reconstruction of the thermal power plant is completed.
In the course of this year, the main project of the new section of the Montenegrin highway from Matešava to Andrijevica, with a length of about 24 kilometers, should be completed. Completion of that project along with the recently completed economic feasibility study is a condition for Montenegro to continue building the highway and can apply for financing from European investment banks. If these prerequisites are met, at the end of this year, a public invitation could be issued for a contractor. The estimated value of the new share, given the large increase in construction material prices in the past year, is now around 370 million euros. Its construction would take about two and a half years. The current section of the highway, opened in July after a three-year delay, connects the capital and the village of Mateševo, from where a narrow regional road leads to Kolašin and the connection to the main road to Bijelo Polje and further to Serbia.
The new section would connect the highway with the highway Plav – Andrijevica – Berane – Bijelo Polje, that is, it would connect the central part of Montenegro with its northeastern part and would be one step closer to the connection with the highway in Serbia.
In July of this year, Montenegro could receive another completed and long-awaited capital investment – the regional road Kolašin – Lubnice – Berane, but only theoretically because this is the fourth deadline for the completion of that road, which was started in 2018 and the price of which is through the annexes of the contract increased from 34 to 56 million euros.
The main contractor is “Euroasfalt” from Sarajevo, and the official reason for these delays is the discovery of a large amount of water in the tunnel under Bjelasica.
Documentation and projects for the construction of city hospitals in Podgorica, which would relieve the central Clinical Hospital Center and in Pljevlja, which would replace the existing one built in 1963, should be completed this year. No new hospital has been built In Montenegro in the past 40 years.
The budget for next year, with 24 million euros, envisages the construction of new cable cars and the modernization of ski resorts in Kolašin, Hajla, Cmiljača and Žarski. 90 million is planned for the construction and reconstruction of roads, and the most significant new project is the first phase of the construction of the boulevard from Budva to Tivat, local media reported.
