Photo: Grad KragujevacBesides building a state data center, the city of Kragujevac invests in energy efficiency and green building principles while preserving cultural and historical monuments. From a city that was once a synonym for heavy industry, it went to a city that is becoming a "Silicon Valley", and a center of digitization. We spoke to the Mayor of Kragujevac, Nikola Dašić, about what has been done in Kragujevac in recent years when it comes to investment in real estate and environmental protection and where the city is today.
Nikola Dašić / Photo: Grad Kragujevac
1. In the previous period, several squares and monuments were reconstructed and built, representing a city's business card. The most recent might be the opening of the reconstructed Square of Vojvoda Radomir Putnik representing one of the capital investments from the city budget?
The idea to restore the old glory of the inner-city center, the Square of Vojvoda Radomir Putnik, a person who has a special place in the history and life of Kragujevac, once upon a time the symbol of elegance and the beginning of the new bazaar, we gave it a modern look. The new center of public life connects the existing pedestrian zone to a unity.
The Vojvoda Radomir Putnik Square is just one step forward in the direction of creating a modern and functional city center. One of the biggest symbols of the city, the legendary rock group Smak, has been immortalized with a monument to
the newly formed Square of Youth. The Freedom Square in front of the municipality building was also reconstructed, which covers 4200 square meters. The bohemian Dragiša Nedović Square arrangement in front of Zelengora Hotel is also planned.
In addition, we have started another big project that we finance with funds from the city budget, and we are talking about the renovation of the facades. We have included in the project 22 buildings dating from the 19th and 20th centuries that were declared monuments of culture in the innermost center of Kragujevac. This way, buildings important for the culture of memories will be preserved in their original style, and with style and illumination will become the decoration of Kragujevac.
2. When we observe energy efficiency and environmental protection, which have been considered in recent years, one of the capital projects is also the replacement of boilers in the city heating plant from coal to gas-fired. How much did the percentage of air pollution decrease in Kragujevac and its surroundings?
One of the capital projects that fundamentally changed the future Kragujevac is the gasification of the city's heating plant, which meant the replacement of coal boilers at the end of life with new gas boilers. Air pollution was for decades the problem of Kragujevac. We managed, with the help of the state, to complete this huge and significant project. Kragujevac was the first city in Serbia that has turned off coal-fired boilers when it comes to local government heating last year. This is the second gas heating season, and air pollution has been reduced by as much as 70 percent.
In addition, Kragujevac is proposed to achieve a green city status considering two other decisions in that domain. From January 1 of this year, all hospitality establishments are obliged to use equipment for the reduction of smoke, steam, and odors by using active coal filters. On September 1 last year, the decision was effective relating to no construction without planting, which obliges the investors to compensate each newly built apartment or business premise by planting one tree.
3. Kragujevac is also one of the judicial centers, and during the past period, even the Palace of Justice was built?
With the construction of the Palace of Justice, Kragujevac acquired the status of a judicial center which covers a territory with almost 2.5 million inhabitants. The magnificent new temple of justice houses all the judicial bodies, which were before that located at 11 different addresses in the city. This modernly equipped facility enables citizens to efficiently, quickly with minimal costs, perform in one place all tasks related to the competencies of the institutions located at this facility.
Centri izvrsnosti / Photo: Grad Kragujevac
4. What does the newly built Data Center represent for the city of Kragujevac and the Republic of Serbia, within which, among other things, is the national artificial intelligence platform?
The construction of the State Data Center positioned the city of Kragujevac as a leader in the IT sector. As a project of national importance, the State Data Center in Kragujevac, according to technical and safety standards, is one of the most modern in the region and it houses the key informational and communicational infrastructure of the Republic of Serbia.
The first state platform for artificial intelligence is in the Data Center intelligence available to the state, local governments, universities, science and technology parks, and startups. Around that, several contracts on the commercial use of State Data have already been signed center with numerous domestic and foreign companies that store theirs here data - Huawei, IBM, SOX, Orion Telekom, Poštanska štedionica, AIGO, Comtrade, RTS and Telekom Srbija. The third phase of the State Data Center is An innovation district that will cover 56,000 square meters, Kragujevac is becoming a "Silicon Valley" as a center of digitization and innovative - creative technologies in which the smart city will develop concepts.
5. How is Kragujevac, when it comes to traffic infrastructure, connected to other centers in Serbia and regional roads?
The city of Kragujevac is in the central part of Serbia, about a hundred kilometers south of Belgrade. It is geographically positioned near the pan-European infrastructure corridor 10, with which it is connected by a modern along a 25-kilometer expressway. A relatively small distance from the state borders of neighboring states to the city (250-320 km), as well as the airports in Surčin and Niš (up to 150 km), open up opportunities for intensive international cooperation.
Investors follow quality roads and one of them is the northern ring road, declared as a project of national importance, which will enable the relocation of freight traffic from the city center, as well as the formation of new business-industrial zones along its route.
6. We are witnessing the construction and reconstruction of university clinics centers in Serbia?
The contract for the construction and reconstruction of the UCC Kragujevac has been signed in half this year. Construction, extension, and reconstruction project
of the Kragujevac University Clinical Center, about 22.000 square meters of new buildings, while about 14.000 square meters will be covered extension and reconstruction. The implementation of this capital project will raise the level of health care to the highest ever, not only for citizens of Kragujevac and Šumadija region, but also for central and western Serbia, which is over two million inhabitants.
Centri izvrsnosti / Photo: Grad Kragujevac
7. What does Kragujevac, as a city, gain by building the largest skate park in Serbia?
Kragujevac added a skate park in the area between the tennis courts and a Boxing Club in the Great Park. It is in the complex where there are open and closed swimming pools, a basketball court, a beach volleyball court, the hall Gordana Goca Bogojević, and the Creative Park. The whole complex, in which there is something for everyone, so that young people, instead of next to a screen, spend their free time.
Given that skateboarding is an Olympic discipline, the space of 826 square meters is also an investment in future Olympic champions from our city and surroundings.
8. Regarding capital projects like "Clean Serbia", what is in in the past period done in Kragujevac and its surroundings?
Within the first phase of the "Clean Serbia" project, the first 40 of the planned 350 kilometers of sewage infrastructure and atmospheric sewage will solve one of the pressing communal issues.
In addition, we are particularly proud of the Centers of Excellence with the parent stem cell bank of the University of Kragujevac, in the construction of which the state invested 14 million euros.
At the end of last year, work on the construction of the new Fire Department base began, which is very important to us because it was the first and last one handed over for use in 1934. A state housing construction project for members of state security services was also implemented, and close to a thousand apartments were built in the Denino Hill settlement.
Kragujevac is entering a new investment cycle of strong development and will no longer be the same. Kragujevac, as the heart of Šumadija, must grow and develop, yes, invest in its future.
Trg Radomira Putnika / Photo: Grad Kragujevac
Vojvoda Radomir Putnik Square is just one step forward in the direction of creating a modern and functional city center.
Kragujevac was the first city in Serbia that switch off coal-fired boilers last year when it comes to district heating. This is the second gas heating season, and air pollution has been reduced by as much as 70 percent.
The magnificent new temple of justice houses all judicial bodies, which were, before that, located at 11 different addresses in the city.
As a project of national importance, the State Data Center in Kragujevac, according to technical and security standards, is one of the most modern in the region and houses the key information and communication infrastructure of the Republic of Serbia.
