Milutin Mrkonjić: Here I am sorry that Prokop is not over – Company

Since the construction of Prokop lasted for almost half a century, the logical question is why the station has not been completed so far. the traffic is distracted, since there are no minimum conditions for its development.

Former Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation, Milutin Mrkonjic, told Danas that he is guilty of the fact that Prokop is not yet complete, and that the project is his "cancer injury".

– Here, I am guilty. I take all the blame on myself, but I pray the current experts who work there to finally finish it. I am ready to help them, if they want my help. Prokop needs to be technologically and infrastructurally equipped to build two technical travel stations and locomotive stations to liberate the Sava Amphitheater, Mr Mrkonjić said.

The problem of large investment projects is, he adds, that they require large capital and that no international institution invests in these projects. According to him, no politician in Serbia also likes such projects because they work long term, and politicians plan mainly mandate mandate.

– This is a question with Prokop, as well as with the Corridors. The continuity of the state is necessary to end it – says M.konjic. Mrkonjic writes about Prokop: "To carry out this great investment project, it is necessary, thanks to the constant cooperation of the state, the railway and the city, to check the compatibility techno-technological and spatial-urban solutions. and then harmonize the dynamics of implementation in order to obtain maximum positive effects for the rail transport system and the city. "His analysis and plans still exist, even though Mrkonjic was removed from his post as Minister of Transport the same year.Acting Minister Zorana Mihajlovic came to this place next year.

Early 2016, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic solemnly opened the Prokop railway station, announcing that all the works of the project would be completed in 2018. After 40 years, a train for Novi Sad left Prokop.The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlovic, and the mayor of Belgrade, Sinisa Mali, attended the ceremony.From the "solemn" opening of the station to the present day, almost nothing has been done and with the relocation of the station, according to experts and the public, the foreign investor of "Belgrade on the water" wanted to move the rail traffic of his project.

The former mayor of Belgrade, Dragan Đilas, shares this opinion, who wrote on his Twitter account q that the station was abolished because of the "madness of one man" and its Arabs, before they made another station. He condemned the behavior of the current government for our newspaper.

– Who normalizes the station in the city center, then makes a new one? Who knows about two years to close the central station, and on the new do not asphalt platforms, do not do elevators, do not open at least some kiosks for people to buy something in waiting for trains that are late? Nobody naturally. But this is not a question, but who is the one who understands all these abnormal things, and which are the ones that the hypocrites of the nobility drive irresponsibly – says Djilas.

Academician Vukan Vučić, a graduate of the Faculty of Transportation and professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, addresses a letter to the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, signaling him the unsustainability of the existing solution to relocate rail traffic. He wrote the letter before the closure of the main train station, saying it would be a serious mistake that would affect not only Belgrade, but also the entire system of Serbian passenger trains "which would lose a large percentage of passengers at a time when all developed countries and other continents build high-speed trains at speeds of 250 to 350 kilometers per hour. "

– The problem that Belgrade has now is a catastrophic mistake in the choice of location from the new station in a completely uninhabited place to Prokop, built in the 1970s. This plan then provided for the construction of a large complex of commercial buildings, a hotel, a shopping center and of two subway lines, which would at least reduce the problem of total obstruction of the site. The only thing that is done: one or two bus lines are introduced at intervals of 15-20 minutes. It is clear that it will not be a functional railway station – said Academician Vucic in a letter. He added that the only explanation is why it is now planned to close the existing station, which was discussed with experts in Serbia, if this decision was made because "the investor does not want rail traffic on the Belgrade waterfront. "This factor, he stressed, is unacceptable for two reasons.

– First, this vision is contrary to the basic principles of modern urban planning, since all major cities in the realization of livable cities invest in large public urban transport – subway, light rail and regional railways , and no city excludes these systems as undesirable. Secondly, it is completely unacceptable that, once important, the investor should be allowed to ruin an important city such as the main train station – concluded Academician Vucic.

Transport Minister Zorana Mihajlovic did not answer Danasa's questions yesterday about the relocation of railway traffic to an untrained station

Concern for the profession

"Not only me, but the great majority of my fellow engineers and urban planners and other professionals with whom I am in contact in Belgrade we are unique in the worry about the impact that Belgrade would have had if a station that for its 134 years of existence built accessibility and all the functions that such a station must "ride" and replace the station that does not have accessibility or any other function, warned Vukan Vucic