City of Nis considering public-private partnership for completion of aqua park

Announced as the biggest investment of the City of Nis in the past years, the aqua park in Lozni Kalem near Niska Banja, according to the announcements, was supposed to be completed by the end of this year. The works on the construction of the aqua park have been delayed by the pandemic, the lack of workers, the economic and energy crises and other problems, the former mayor of Nis Dragana Sotirovski said toward the end of her mandate.

Her successor, Dragoslav Pavlovic, said that the financing of it had to be looked into, because the agreement with the contractor was to expire not long after.

– It has to be reviewed how far the works on the aqua park have progressed, what’s going on with the financing and what’s going on with the current situations. In the upcoming period, the agreement with the contractor is supposed to expire. Once we know more, we will present the works to be done in the next period – said Pavlovic.

Some representatives of the city of Nis have mentioned a public-private partnership as one of the ways of continuing the financing of the construction of the aqua park. The mayor has confirmed that.

– A public-private partnership is one way of financing, but also one way of doing the works. That private partner that would enter the partnership with its share would, in some way, also probably run the aqua park. That is the principle of the functioning of the public-private partnership. The construction is done using somebody’s money, the city provides a part of the money, the private partner provides a part, but it also requires management or a repayment from a part of the profit – says Pavlovic.

He said that some time would be needed to look at the whole problem and that they would subsequently present a solution.

The value of the current agreement is around RSD 1.7 billion. The aqua park spreads on 5.4 hectares, which should feature a restaurant, a spa center, recreation, vitality, indoor and wave pools, as well as other entertainment features.

The preparatory works on the aqua park started in February 2022, and the completion deadline period for all works is three years.

Grad Niš

Dragana Sotirovski

Dragoslav Pavlović

aqua park in Lozni Kalem near Niška Banja