The deadline for remediation, i.e. cleaning the area of the former Bijela shipyard, has been extended until June 30th, 2025. The decision on the extension was made by the Government at a recently held telephone session, and the possibility of its extension was also left open.
As stated in the Government document, this is the fourth extension of the deadline for remediation. This work was originally scheduled to be completed by March 31th, 2020. After that, an annex to the contract was concluded, which moved the deadline to December 31th, 2021, then to December 31th, 2022, and then to June 30th, 2023.
The document states that the Environmental Protection Agency informed the Administration of Maritime Safety and Port Management of the need to re-annex the Concession Agreement, due to the fact that the concession area was not cleaned in accordance with the plan and that it reached an agreement with the Adriatic 42 concessionaire that the land that is below the limit of criteria for export, temporarily stored at an open location (hemosan/northern landfill) until June 30th, 2025, with the possibility of extension.
As a reminder, the contract on the concession award for the Bijela Shipyard was signed at the end of 2018 with the consortium of companies Adriatic Marinas and Damen. Later, the Dutch company Damen withdrew from the job, and the contract was transferred to the consortium Adriatic Marinas and Dry Docks World – Dubai LLC from the United Arab Emirates.
The concessionaire was registered by the company Montenegro Yacht Services, which changed its name to Adriatic 42.
The concession was granted for 30 years, and within the Adriatic 42 project, the opening of a yacht and superyacht overhaul center is planned. The contract envisages the adaptation, reconstruction and construction of facilities within the shipyard. It is planned that the amount of 20 million EUR will be invested in the first three years, and that the investment period will start from the date of submission of the expert’s report.
The realization of the project started even before the beginning of the investment period, however, the concession fee is paid from the date of the beginning of the investment period in accordance with the agreed dynamics.
Namely, the Adriatic 42 project officially started at the end of October last year, and a unique center for the overhaul of yachts and superyachts was opened at the shipyard.
A new generation floating dock for servicing the largest yachts, worth several million dollars, arrived in Bijela even before the opening. While it is 180 meters long, 37 meters wide with a capacity of 10,000 tons of cargo vessels, which allows it to accommodate the world’s largest yachts. Just one such vessel, the largest yacht in the world Black Pearl, was the first client of the Adriatic 42 company, and the overhaul was successfully completed in 14 days.
At the end of last year, the company Valgo, which is in charge of remediation, said that all the dangerous grit was removed from Bijela, while the contaminated soil remained. As they stated, since 2018, about 70,000 tons of contaminated grit, as well as a large amount of asbestos, dangerous oil and soil, have been exported to Spain. Contaminated soil remains, which will go to Belgium in two ships from Bijela.
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