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Serbia: Belgrade bridge stirs admiration and controversy
Belgrade 24 June (AKI) - With temperatures soaring past 30 degrees
centigrade in the first days of summer, eyes of the Belgraders who
seek refreshment on the banks of the Sava River, are drawn to a
monumental structure rising over the river, which has become a
subject of world interest but stirred bitter controversy at home.
In an effort to solve traffic congestion problems, city authorities have
decided to build a fourth bridge across the river, almost a kilometer
long and 45 meters wide, with six traffic lanes, pedestrian and bike
paths and tracks for a rail metro system which is still only a figment of
imagination.
After election victory in 2008, the government of pro-European
president Boris Tadic has set the construction of the bridge as one of
its main priorities in its mandate and a matter of pride.
Belgrade bridges, connecting the new and old part of the city of two
million population, have no romantic aura of Clint Eastwood’s 1995 film
“The Bridges of Madison Country”, based on Robert James Waller
novel.
Rather, they are linked to daily traffic problems and people’s
commuting troubles. But opposition politicians don’t share the
enthusiasm of the ruling majority and have met the new project with
prejudice reminiscent of Jane Austen’s 19th century novel “Pride and
Prejudice”.
The original cost was contracted at 118 million euros, but opposition
says it was now approaching 400 million and likely to go beyond, which
is more than a half of city’s annual budget.
An opposition city councilman Nemanja Sarovic said it was a
“Pharaonic bridge”. Another councilman Andreja Mladenovic said that
future generations will be paying for this “megalomania” in a country
already burdened by 25 billion euros of foreign debt.
Danny Forster of the American Discovery Channel, an architect
himself, was fascinated by the idea of 8,600 tones bridge hanging on
a single 200 meters tall pylon and came to Belgrade to shoot a
documentary.
The preview was shown in Belgrade this week and the film will be aired
on 1 July. Forster noted that Serbia had been known for ethnic
cleansing and war criminals, a bleak heritage from 1991-1995 war that
followed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. “Belgrade had been a
place of destruction, not construction,” he said.
“The bridge, fittingly, will connect old Belgrade with new Belgrade, and
will be an expression of Serbia′s reemergence, fast-growing economy,
and confidence in the future,” Forster narrates.
But Serbian media noted that Forster was carried away by his
enthusiasm and overlooked the fact that Serbia’s economy was in
shambles and one of the poorest in Europe.
Belgrade mayor Dragan Djilas said the bridge will be connected in
August and completed by the end of this year. But with access roads
and infrastructure it should be fully operational by the end of 2013, he
said.
Opposition, on the other hand, says the bridge is the only “trump card”
of the ruling coalition ahead of next year’s parliamentary election,
having failed on all other promises.
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