Agreement on ownership of land of Port "Beograd" soon – City gets 55 ha, "Worldfin" to obtain 20 ha

Belgrade and the owners of Port "Beograd" will soon reach the agreement on how to resolve the dispute over the ownership of the land on the right bank of the Danube. Out of disputable 75 ha, the city will get 55, while company "Worldfin" will obtain 20 ha. The city is going to become the owner of 25 ha at the peak of Ada Huja and another 30 ha between the paper factory and the Pančevo bridge.

The dispute between "Worldfin" and Belgrade was one of the key issues of the last year’s pre-election campaign of the coalition For European Serbia and Dragan Đilas, who was the candidate for the Mayor of Belgrade at that time. They claimed that the city could not renounce the land, and that everything would be resolved at court.

Since the court decided in favor of "Worldfin" for the third time, leaving the city without a single square meter, the reaching of the agreement has emerged as the only option. According to that agreement, Belgrade should get 55 ha of the land, while "Worldfin" is free to start realization of the project for construction of a new town for about 30,000 people, the plans for which will be drawn by Daniel Libeskind, one of the world’s most famous architects. The works should start by the end of the year.

The owners of company "Worldfin" are: Milan Beko (50%) and Ivana Veselinović, Ivana Mišković and Marko Mišković.

The 1972 General Land-Utilization Plan of Belgrade anticipated relocation of the port and industrial units from the space between the marina in Dorćol and the Pančevo bridge prior to year 2021. The port was supposed to be moved either to Velikoselski Rit or to the location called Reva 2 in Krnjača.

The changes that were introduced in the plan in 2003 confirmed that the purpose of the territory where the port is situated should be changed, and possible new place for the port was the space in Krnjača, on the left bank of the Danube. At this moment, Dragan Đilas, the Mayor of Belgrade, prefers the use of the Pančevo’s port, with necessary changes, to construction of the new port.

(Note: the complete text is taken from newspaper Politika of March 4, 2009)