Bandic Expects Help From Sanader

Mayor Bandic said the city has enough money to build sports halls, but that Sanader`s government should help nevertheless.

Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic said during the City assembly Current hour that three options of building handball halls are being considered, therefore construction of a hall is possible in Laniste, Blato or the Dom sportova sports hall reconstruction.

He also mentioned a tender is supposed to be opened soon for the Handball Home in Svetice. He announced the construction of the Handball hall in Two weeks, while the Zagreb Arena in three weeks, and noted they would not construct without consultations with the government. Bandic went on saying Prime Minister Ivo Sanader promised to help and he hopes Sanader will not back down from his word.

He continued with the standard “it is not time to be pathetic” and used the question of party colleague Davor Bernardic, to point out once again that the Handball law is not Bandic`s law, as the government called it, but an agreement of six mayors, who consolidated they needed a faster procedure and not public welfare. He said he personally favours the public-private partnership model as the city of Split has done, and that for such an option the existing framework is enough.

Tomislav Babic of the Croatian Democratic Union added to this question and wondered if Zagreb was facing bankruptcy when it cannot build a sports hall on its own, to which Bandic replied it was not a matter of not having money for construction, but that the unnecessary luxury of investing into a project which cannot pay off will not be allowed.