Station Prokop without a use permit and technical documentation for fire protection
Link to original article: https://www.danas.rs/vesti/drustvo/stanica-prokop-bez-upotrebne-dozvole-i-tehnicke-dokumentacije-za-zastitu-od-pozara/
Many buildings in Serbia are being used without use permits, and Prokop is among them, as it was announced. This facility is the new central railway station in Belgrade, which, like its counterpart in Novi Sad, also had a ceremonial opening and has been operating at full steam since October 2023, with thousands of people passing through it every day.
However, as can be seen from the official documentation, not only does Prokop not have a license, but this station also does not meet the requirements regarding fire protection, yet it is allowed to operate regularly and receive passengers.
The new economy , by reviewing the available documents regarding the construction of Prokop, found contradictions, which speak in favor of the non-transparent and non-procedural use of permits and approvals in Serbia, which ultimately result in lawsuits or tragedies, as in the case of the station in Novi Sad.
In the case of Prokop, the state of the documentation is such that it seems that this station, as things stand now, will not even be able to obtain a use permit, for which it submitted a request again on January 25 of this year.
Prokop, however, lacks another important item regarding the safety of the building, since the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure also rejected the technical documentation regarding fire protection measures. As can be seen from publicly available documents, the Railway Infrastructure of Serbia, which manages Prokop, submitted a request for the delivery of this documentation on February 21, 2023, and the Ministry rejected it six days later, on March 27, 2023.
“They will never be able to get a use permit without a project that has been approved and passed a technical check, and fire protection measures are part of all of that. Given that they have submitted a new application for a use permit, they will not be able to get it without the adopted technical documentation and for fire protection,” explains Danijel Dašić, an active civil engineer.
Shortly after the demolition of the canopy in Novi Sad, when 15 people were killed, the public learned that Prokop also does not have a license, even though he is working. In January, the Railway Infrastructure of Serbia submitted a new application for a use permit, which is now waiting to be accepted or rejected, and according to all indications, it will be the latter, because the documentation is still incomplete.
Infrastructure did not respond to the New Economy journalist’s inquiry as to why a new application for a use permit should be submitted when the technical documentation was not accepted.
When the request for technical documentation for fire protection was rejected, it was stated that the request was irregular. Some general objections were that the facility does not represent an independent techno-economic entity to which the Emergency Management Authority can issue approval in accordance with the Law on Fire Protection, as well as that after the objections have been removed, projects for implementation should be harmonized with the Main Fire Protection Project, as can be seen from CEOP documents (Central Record of Unified Procedures for Issuing Building Permits).
We can expect the decision on issuing a use permit for Prokop, which was repeated in January of this year, soon, given that last time the decision was available less than two weeks after the application was submitted.