Lack of money impedes construction of National Tennis Center in New Belgrade - Tennis Association of Serbia: Works will not start before autumn 2012

Although it was announced that the construction of the National Tennis Center in New Belgrade would commence in September 2011, that did not happen because of a lack of money, eKapija learns.

People at the Tennis Association of Serbia (TAS) say that they currently don't have enough money in the budget for a preliminary design, which costs about EUR 50,000.

- All required conditions are created for us to start the work on a preliminary design, but that is not cheap at all. The Tennis Association of Serbia is unable to finance the work on that design at the moment, which is why we will wait until January 2012 to see how much money we will have in the budget for the next year - Cedomir Soskic, manager of TAS, says for eKapija.

- A preliminary design is necessary because we cannot apply for a grant from the City of Belgrade, the Ministry of Sports and the National Investment Plan (NIP) without it. We will know how much the National Tennis Center costs once that design is finished.

Cedomir Soskic hopes that the preliminary design will be finished until March 2012, so they could ask government agencies to grant funds for the construction. TAS should also later finance the work on a main design, of which value is estimated at about EUR 200,000.

- We hope that the implementation of the project will be accelerated upon the appointment of a new president of TAS. I cannot specify anything yet, but I believe it will be hard to start the construction before late autumn 2012, that is, until early 2013 - says Cedomir Soskic.

He, however, adds that everything will go relatively quickly once the construction starts, stressing that it will take 4 to 5 month to build the National Tennis Center.

According to a program solution for the National Tennis Center, about 13,000 square meters of space should be built on a 2.7-hectare lot. That complex should comprise a tennis arena with five courts, TAS's premises, accommodation units for young tennis players (spanning between 30 and 40 square meters each), a gym, a congress center, and a medical ward. There should be ten outdoor tennis courts as well.