Million euros for more comfortable studying - Teaching and tourist complex Goc gets new laboratory, restaurant, accommodation facilities, seminar rooms...

(future look of the Goc complex)

After nearly six decades in existence, the Goc teaching center nestled in the most wooded part of the namesake mountain will soon get a new look.

Since 1956 this teaching and tourist complex of the Belgrade Faculty of Forestry has received thousands of faculty and secondary school students, forestry experts as well as numerous tourists. Covering a surface area of 3,731 hectares, this teaching complex was comprised of hostels Piramida and Studenac and villas Vlasta and Planinka in addition to forests and forest nurseries.

According to Aleksandar Vlajnic, director of the teaching center Goc, construction of a new 1,200 square meter, four-floor facility in this complex commenced this April.

- The new building of the science center, spanning 800 square meters, will feature three laboratories equipped with the state-of-the-art equipment for training the students of the Belgrade Faculty of Forestry and other faculties, three seminar rooms with movable walls that can be merged into a big conference room, and a computer center - Vlajnic explains to eKapija.

So far the foundations have been laid, and now the first floor of this facility is under construction. The plan is to build another floor and an attic. If everything goes as planned, as our interlocutor says, the science center will be completed by the New Year, and should receive first visitors in May 2014.

The famous hostel Studenac is already torn down to make space for a more comfortable accommodation facility.

- Studenac used to include bedrooms and a shared bathroom, whereas the new building will offer a total of 40 beds in single, twin and triple rooms with a separate bathroom - Vlajnic adds.

Reconstruction of a symbol of this complex - Piramida Hotel featuring 11 rooms, is also in the pipeline under this project.

The old dining room will be replaced with a restaurant, where local specialties will continue to be served, but in a more beautiful and more modern ambiance.

According to Vlajnic, a complex like this one also requires a new storage space, which is why the construction of one such facility is in the pipeline.

Although they are ripe for renovation, Vlasta and Planinka will have to wait for some better days. These two villas with a total capacity of 48 beds are not covered by the reconstruction plan, but Vlajnic says that Goc will soon apply for grants for their adaptation.

Funding from IPA funds

The contractor is Zidar from Negotin. The total value of the project is EUR 1 million, 800,000 euros of which will be spent on construction works and the remaining EUR 200,000 on equipment.

Reconstruction of this mountain complex is only a part of the High Education Teaching Infrastructure Project - EU HETIP, for which EUR 22 million have been provided by the EU from the EU pre-accession funds (IPA), Vladimir Marjanovic, an engineer at the Safege company which is in charge of supervising the work under this program, told us earlier.

For students and tourists

A mixed forest of fir, beech, pine and oak at Mount Goc represents a natural rarity, which is why the Goc complex is primarily intended for forestry students.

Just like before, the renovated complex will also be open to all nature lovers. When there are no field courses, this complex is open to tourists, who will enjoy a more comfortable accommodation as of next spring in addition to untouched nature.

I.M.