The completion of the first section of the highway will be delayed for at least a year and a half, since the project started without the completed planning documentation.
Costs of construction of the most expensive kilometre in Europe will increase by at least a quarter of the initially agreed amount and will surely exceed one billion Euros. The growth of more than €200 million occurred due to unforeseen works and additional loan costs.
Subcontractors will receive almost half of the money from the construction of the first section of the highway, while four Montenegrin companies will receive 80% of this amount.
Since the beginning of the construction of the highway, the Chinese company has been exempted from paying at least € 140 million of taxes, not counting the exemption remission of from taxes and contributions to foreign workers, nor all exemptions from imports taxes on equipment.
The current highway route was selected as the most favourable, although neither realistic assessment of the situation was made, nor were the costs of environmental protection included in the calculation, which are enormous. The protected Tara River is devastated, with relocated riverbed and changed course, and it is polluted by the landfill of construction waste on its banks and untreated wastewater from the construction site.
Мost of institutions do not see such picture, even when they are confronted with official data of other authorities on the degree of pollution of the river. Inspections consider that there is no need for increased controls and declare their findings as trade secrets. A lot of information on finances and subsidies are also classified, as well as numerous data on state condition and measures of the environmental protection. Even the planned highway route is hidden from the public.
Behind closed doors, the Government is already negotiating construction of the second section of the highway with CRBC through the model of private-public partnership, while claiming that it does not favour the Chinese company.
Procedures for the protection of several sites of international significance, such as Kotor area, salt works “Solana“ Ulcinj, Lake Skadar and Buljarica, have not been completed. This contributes to their further devastation and endangering the protected status.
The Government included the project of building hydropower plants on Morača in the list of priorities, and then received a concrete offer from a Chinese company. This project has been criticized by numerous international organizations and experts, but the Government’s interest in its implementation has also increased due to the possibility of exporting the produced electricity through undersea cable.
The impression is that the Government has, at least for now, given up the construction of the second block of the Thermal Power Plant in Pljevlja and instead turned to reconstruction of the first block in order to extend its lifetime.
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