(Hina) Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Construction and Physical Planning Predrag Štromar reported that more than 21 thousand applications have been submitted so far for the analysis of damage to facilities caused by the earthquake in Zagreb. He also reported that a bill was being prepared which would enable quicker, simpler and more efficient addressing of the housing issue of citizens in Zagreb and Krapina-Zagorje County whose homes were affected by the earthquake.
"We have more than 21 thousand individual applications so far, wiith some applications duplicating. But the team on the ground is following, uniting, working intensively, and so far about 2.5 thousand cases have been processed," Štromar told reporters ahead of the government's session.
He said that more than 80 percent of the preparations for the bill have already been completed, and that they are cooperating with the Faculty of Civil Engineering, the City of Zagreb and the Ministry of Culture, hoping that the bill would undergo the enactment process very soon.
After passing the law, the government would immediately pass also the respective programme, and Štromar pointed out the desire for everything to be “faster, with less bureaucracy and as efficient as possible.”
When asked by journalists what could be expected from this law, since currently compensation could be paid in the amount of five percent of the damages, Štromar answered that we already had cases in which laws were passed for specific situations, such as the floods in Gunja.
The minister expects that funds will be available, with their unification being aimed at. He also anticipates sources from the European Union, with the state and the City of Zagreb giving their share, and there is also a special fund, said Štromar.
However, he pointed out that the first thing that needs to be established is the amount of the funds we need, noting that “it will take a lot.”
Asked about the consequences of the coronavirus on the construction sector, Štromar says that most of the construction sites are in operation, since procurement of construction material has been enabled.
“Investors now individually decide based on the scale of the construction itself and on the extent to which the epidemiologists' recommendations on not transmitting the infection can be respected. Where these recommendations can be complied with, construction sites are in operation," Štromar said.
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