Construction of indoor swimming pool in Pirot waits for money from the state - geothermal water spring research commenced

It is most likely that long-announced construction of an indoor swimming pool in Pirot, which should be situated within future sports center Senjak, will not start this year because the money for that investment, worth about 4.5m EUR, has not been provided yet. The Mayor of Pirot, Vladan Vasić, told eKapija that the plan was that 60% of the investment be provided by stock company Dom Sportova (the joint venture of Town Hall of Pirot and company Tigar), while the rest would be donated by the state.

- The share of the municipality and Tigar would be equal. The company has already financed elaboration of complete project-technical documentation. We've collected all the required licenses, but the commencement of construction is late because we have not received the financial aid from the republic authorities. There is a possibility that, if the investment funds are not provided in the near future, we take in more serious consideration the investment through private-public partnership, and one of the solutions may be the IPA funds of European Union, that is, cross-border cooperation - said Vasić and pointed out that the whole region of Pirot did not have the indoor swimming pool and that the nearest one was in Niš and Sofia.

According to Tigar Inkon's project, construction of one big swimming pool (33x25m) and one small pool (8x25m) for non-swimmers is in the pipeline. Accompanying contents such as massage rooms and commercial space should be built next to the swimming pool, and total surface of the facility is planned to be 5,500 square meters.

- The project should include some innovations when it comes to supply of heating energy. We have started the research of the building land in order to determine if there are some subterranean waters or geothermal water springs in that location, and we will also consider the potentials of use of solar energy. The drilling works have already started, and the documentation should be finished prior to April 2010 - Vasić explained and added that the advisers in the research were the Belgrade Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and German Visman.

Indoor swimming pools will be situated on the Nišava, across the road from big city stadium, next to which there are four auxiliary fields. Construction of a big hall within the Senjak complex, similar to Vršac's Milenijum, is also in the pipeline.

- Pirot has a small sports hall, which is situated about 700 meters away from future complex Senjak. We already have necessary documentation and building permit for the big hall, which will be used for all indoor sports, but, since the investment is worth about 8m EUR, we still don't know when the realization of the project will start.

The lovers of water sports in Pirot can now enjoy these activities only during the summer period, thanks to the bathing resort on the Nišava.

- The beach occupies about 4.5 ha and it is owned by Hydroelectric Power Plant Pirot, which built it in the 1990's. The municipality may take over that land because, so far, we have been managing the bathing resort during the summer months only.