Cetinje, the former capital, is trying for the THIRD time to find a design solution for the second phase of its cable car, but guess what? No one is biting! Yes, you read that right – the THIRD time! The tender was announced on July 3rd, and the deadline for submitting offers expires today at 9 AM. The price for the design solution remains the same – 15,000 euros including VAT. The previous two tenders lasted only five days each and yielded zero results.
Let’s remind you, the Kotor-Lovćen cable car opened for commercial rides in mid-August last year. The route starts at Dub near Kotor and ends at Kuk on Mount Lovćen, at 1,350 meters above sea level. The cable car has 48 gondolas, and the round trip takes 22 minutes. The existing cable car was built by the Leitner Novi Volvox consortium.
The plan is to extend the cable car to Ivanova Korita, right in Cetinje itself. According to a study from last year, building this cable car would cost about 58.3 million euros including VAT, and the investment was deemed profitable and sustainable. Prime Minister Milojko Spajić and Cetinje’s mayor Nikola Đurašković discussed continuing the cable car construction back in May last year. It was announced then that by June, conditions might be set to allocate funds in the budget. However, the budget revision later that year did not include funds for this project.
For this year, the state’s capital budget includes 100,000 euros for preparing construction documentation. The plan is to finish the cable car by the 20th anniversary of Montenegro’s independence celebrations in May next year. The Prime Minister emphasized at a spring meeting with the mayor that the project will have full government support and that money for construction will be allocated from the capital budget.
The Kotor-Cetinje cable car route is divided into three parts with four designated locations: Dub, Kuk, Ivanova Korita intermediate station, and Cetinje intermediate station, totaling about 15 kilometers.
But while tenders for the design solution keep getting announced and failing, the big question remains: will this project ever come to life? Is it really possible that no one wants to take on this task? Is 15,000 euros for a design solution really such a big deal? Or is there something else going on?
If you have thoughts on this cable car circus, feel free to share – maybe together we’ll uncover what’s really happening behind the scenes!
