City of Belgrade sets aside 1m EUR for Avala tower - construction as planned

Works on rehabilitation of the Avala Tower are being carried out according to the plan and, of 8m EUR required for its construction, Belgrade will set aside about 1m EUR - said the Deputy Mayor of Belgrade, Radmila Hrustanović, yesterday (August 22, 2007) during the visit to the building site.

- All necessary conditions for rehabilitation of the tower were created at the beginning of February, the works are carried out by company "Ratko Mitrović-Dedinje", and the tower will be finished within one year - said the building site manager Mirko Popović.

General Manager of TRansportation Institute CIP, which both drew the plans and supervises the works, Milutin Ignjatović, said that the new tower would have the same looks as the old one, but that it would be made of material of higher quality and that about 5,000 cubic meters of concrete would be used for its construction.

Ignjatović reminded that the height of the tower would be 203 m and that it would have two security elevators that would each transport 10 passengers per 40 seconds. Also, the restaurant at the height of 123 m above the ground will be reopened.

The plans for the Avala Tower, from the top of which one could see half of Šumadija, were drawn by Uroš Bogunović and Slobodan Janjić. It was finished in 1965 and it was the highest in the Balkans.

The tower was torn down during NATO bombing, on April 29, 1999.