Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic has said that he is proud the city government has stabilised the city finances, as a result of which major capital investments are about to be launched and Zagreb is the only city in Croatia that has not increased the prices of any of the municipal services despite inflation.

Tomasevic said this in an interview with Hina, given on the occasion of the third anniversary of the new city administration’s term in office.

The mayor announced eight capital projects and the adoption of a new city general development plan, which, he said, would green, for the first time, land intended for mixed, commercial and housing construction purposes, thus outlining a new vision for Zagreb.

City finances stabilised

Speaking of the city’s credit rating, he said that for the first time after 13 years, it had been restored to the investment level.

We are the only city in the country that despite the inflation has not raised the prices of municipal services or the prices of kindergarten services or services provided by senior citizens’ homes, he said.

The Zagreb Holding city-owned multi-utility conglomerate has been operating in the black for the second consecutive year, it has been servicing its debts and is the first public company in the country to have issued environmental bonds, he said.

As of 1 June, free public transport will be introduced for all residents aged above 65, which is around 160,000 people, he said, noting that since May all residents of Zagreb have been able to use the cable car to Mt Medvednica overlooking the city free of charge.

More than 90% of the post-earthquake reconstruction of the city-owned buildings and infrastructure has been completed, he said, noting that as many as 16 primary and secondary schools have been built, expanded or reconstructed, of which EU co-funded eight projects while the city financed eight projects.

By the end of the term, five more schools will be built, which is a total of 21 schools in a single term in office. In 2023, four kindergartens were built, five will be completed by September, and another five by the end of the year, Tomasevic said.

The wages of kindergarten employees have been raised and an additional 550 workers have been hired. In relation to 2021, subsidies to private kindergartens have been increased by 66% so that they do not have to raise their prices, he said.

Over a period of two decades, until 2021, 0.7 mW of solar power plant was installed on the roofs of city-owned buildings, and in the past three years four times more capacity was installed while in the next year and a half, the capacity would be increased 20 times, he said.

Tomasevic said that during the term of the previous mayor, the late Milan Bandic, the city was a “symbol of corruption” while in the past three years there have been no corruption scandals.

He noted that his government inherited a deficit of €185 million, which it managed to reschedule to avoid selling valuable city-owned land and repaid over a period of two years, contrary to forecasts heard in the previous City Assembly that it would take the new city administration four years to do that.

Eight strategic capital projects

Speaking of the planned strategic capital projects, Tomasevic mentioned Paromlin, the Dom Sportova sports hall, the Špansko swimming pool, Sarajevska Street, Podbrezje, the Europa cinema, Heinzelova Street and the stadium in the city’s Kranjceviceva Street.

The Paromlin project is the biggest capital investment, worth around €80 million, of which half is expected to be obtained from EU funds. Work on the project started a month ago, it will last two years and once completed, Zagreb will have a new cultural education centre with a modern, Scandinavian-style library, he said.

The structural reconstruction of Dom Sportova will start in June, work on the Špansko swimming pool project will start in early July, work on the road infrastructure in Sarajevska Street will be launched in late July, while work on the tram line running from the shunting yard to the city’s Youth Bridge (Most mladosti) will start in September.

In September, construction work will start on a building with some 300 flats for social and affordable rent in the Podbrezje district.

Reconstruction work on the Europa cinema will start by the end of the year, when work on the extension of the tram line in Heinzelova Street and construction work on the stadium in Kranjceviceva Street, with some 11,000 seats, will start.

Tomasevic said that once that stadium is completed, the old Maksimir stadium will be torn down and an international tender will be published for its architectural design.

Problems with traffic

Asked about the problem of traffic congestion in Zagreb and what was being done to solve it, Tomasevic said that one of the city bridges, Jadranski Most, had been under reconstruction for two years because it could not be entirely closed to traffic and because it had never been reconstructed since it was built in 1981.

Tomasevic said he would insist that all city bridges be renovated and reinforced to make them more resilient to earthquakes, into which more than €20 million had been invested so far and twice as much would be invested.

A traffic study is being made for a new bridge in the neighbourhood of Jarun, and work has started on renovating the tram infrastructure, he said, adding that for the first time the tram network would be expanded.

Sixty-five new buses have been purchased for the city’s ZET public transport company, and another 100, running on electricity or hydrogen, will be purchased with the help of EU funds, as will at least another 30 used ones.

Twenty new trams are being manufactured by Koncar for the city, the first ones will be delivered in the spring, and another 40 will be bought. Eleven used trams have been bought from the city of Augsburg, Tomasevic said, adding that tram tracks would be protected to enable unimpeded passage for trams.

The introduction of an automated traffic management system is under way, he said, noting that 127 junctions would be integrated in that system this year.

Waste management

Asked about problems with waste management, Tomasevic said that the new model of waste collection and the related rates were introduced a year and a half ago, noting that by July all 150 underground waste containers would be installed in the city centre, with more than 100 already having been installed.

In the other parts of the city, boxes for garbage containers are being installed and the city will finance their purchase by the end of the year, while in September, the installment of semi-underground waste containers will start, he said.

By the end of the year 90,000 plastic and metal waste bins will have been distributed to family houses, with 12,000 having been distributed so far, he said, noting that the number of recycling yards had been increased to 21, while 41 new trucks have been purchased for the city sanitation company, which has been hiring new workers.

Bio waste is given to private companies to compost it until approval is obtained for the reconstruction of the composting plant at the city landfill Jakusevec, following landslides there at the end of last year.

The city waste management centre will be built at Resnik, and the plan is to put it into operation by the end of 2028, the mayor said.

Asked if he expected to win a new term in office, he said that considering the city administration’s results, he did and that he would run again for the office in a year’s time.

Asked about his vision for a new term in office, Tomasevic said that some things remained to be done by the end of the current term to lay the groundwork for the next.

He explained that he expected the City Assembly to vote in, by the end of the year, changes to the city’s general development plan, for the first time after eight years.

Unlike previous changes to the general development plan, when the former city administrations repurposed green areas to make them suitable for housing construction and commercial purposes, for the first time now, some of the plots intended for housing construction and commercial and mixed purposes will be turned into green areas, he said, noting that the new general development plan would outline a vision of a greener, more equitable and more ordered city.