Bajloni Market and Staklenac to be removed by end of year in preparation for subway construction – Commercial contract for wastewater treatment plant during summer

The Republic Square shopping center, better known as Staklenac for years, was built in the late 1980s as a replacement for other temporary structures - metal kiosks that were in that place until 1988. The National Theater was also reconstructed at that time, all on the eve of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in 1989. For almost four decades, this temporary structure in the very center of the city has been "on shaky ground" for years. Its removal has been announced several times in those almost four decades - firstly due to the previously planned construction of an opera and ballet, and then ten years ago due to the construction of a multifunctional cultural facility.

The fact that this temporary building in a glass robe is, by all accounts, facing its end and will end up in rubble in a few months is evidenced by the announcement of the city manager, Miroslav Cuckovic. The reason for the planned removal of Staklenac by the end of the year is not the construction of the previously announced cultural facility in its place, but preparations for more specific works related to the construction of the subway system.

As Cuckovic stated for TV Blic, in addition to Staklenac, as part of this work, the removal of Bajloni Market (officially Skadarlija Market, ed. eKapija) is also planned.

– The panorama of Belgrade will look different in the coming months. In addition to the aforementioned buildings, a large number of industrial buildings in the vicinity of the Pancevo Bridge will also be removed, because at that point the mole will enter from that direction and head towards Bajloni and Republic Square. The panorama of Banovo Brdo will soon change as well. There will no longer be that gas station on the corner of Blagoja Parovica and Pozeska streets, because there will also be a subway station there. Also, the park in that part of the city will be moved to the part of the park that is currently undeveloped, because there will also be a construction site in the Banovo Brdo area. For the same reasons, Vodovodska Street will also be closed, 100 meters long, on the corner with Trgovacka Street – said Cuckovic.

As he said, the closing of Despota Stefana Boulevard is also imminent, where a third mole will arrive, but the one planned for digging a tunnel from the Sava to the Danube slope. It is planned that this boulevard will be closed for two years, which should roughly happen in August this year. The first phase involves the construction of roads leading to the center and from the center to the Pancevo Bridge, Cuckovic added for TV Blic. The machine itself that will dig will go underground in the middle of the boulevard and from there it will head towards the Faculty of Economics. He added that, when the tunnel is finished, according to current projections, about 30 public transport lines that now pass through, for example, Francuska, Svetogorska or Makedonska Street, will be transferred underground, that is, into it.

When it comes to moles for the subway, as he said, for the mole that will start digging from the direction of the Pancevo Bridge, a packing list is being prepared, considering that it is a huge machine, over 1,500 tons.

– It will be packed from parts, since it has a lot of electronics, a lot of sensitive elements. The loading of the machine itself and its transport from China to Constanta is something that will happen in the coming weeks. Our goal is to have it delivered by September – he said.

It is planned, as he said, that the subway moles, when they start, will dig for 550 days from their directions and “meet” at the Fair.

He added that an agreement had been reached with Alstom to manufacture the subway trains while construction work on the first subway line is ongoing. The current plan, he said, is that once the first line is completed, its testing will last about six months, but if the experts say otherwise, or if additional time is needed, those instructions will be followed.

As for the second capital project, the realization of which Belgraders, like the subway, have been waiting for decades, the central wastewater treatment plant, Cuckovic announced that there would be concrete progress in that regard during the summer.

– The commercial contract for the construction of the central wastewater treatment plant will be signed during this summer. The contract for the construction of the wastewater treatment plant on the left bank of the Danube is already in force and this is something that should be completed within 36 months – he said.

Alstom

Republic Square Shopping Center Belgrade

Staklenac Shopping Center Belgrade

Bajloni Market Belgrade

Skadarlija Market Belgrade

Pančevo Bridge Belgrade

Miroslav Čučković

Belgrade subway

tunnel from Sava to Danube slope

construction of wastewater treatment facility in Belgrade

Republic Square subway station Belgrade