Thousands of passers-by use the escalators every day, and the shopping mall and the city authorities cannot agree who should pay for their repairs.
Escalators at the entrance of the Importanne Centre shopping mall near the main train station in Zagreb have been out of order for months. Importanne claims that between 350,000 and 550,000 people used them daily, but it seems that the city authorities and the shopping mall cannot agree who should pay for the repairs, reports Jutarnji List on August 10, 2018.
Importanne announced that they had sent a financing request to the competent city officials earlier this year after a servicing company informed them that the escalators could be repaired, but that they would probably break down soon again. The escalators were closed after warnings they were not safe for users and that serious injuries could occur. That is why the shopping mall started thinking about replacing the escalators with new ones.
“The investment would amount to about 1.5 million kuna, which is more cost-effective than repairs, especially considering the age of the existing escalators which were installed in 1994,” said Nevenka Zečević, Importanne’s managing director. However, she said they had not yet received a response from the city authorities. The only response was the city’s decision to halve the amount paid to maintain the area in question.
In addition to the shopping mall customers, the escalators and accompanying staircases are used by numerous passers-by for whom this is the only way to pass below the railway tracks at the main train station and reach a large commuter bus terminal located on the other side of the tracks.
“Given the insufficient funds for maintenance and the termination of funding in 2018, we are considering various options to solve this problem, including the possibility of charging for the use of the passage. In that case, citizens would have to bear the cost,” the director said.
The move was called “unacceptable” by the city authorities, which said that the responsibility was on Importanne Centre due to its “inadequate maintenance.” They also argued that Importanne Centre refused to provide the requested specification of expenditures this year and refused to enter into a contract for the management and maintenance of the common areas of Importanne Centre.
“As a solution for the escalators which are used by the public and connect the bus terminal and the town centre, the City of Zagreb is of the opinion that charging for the use of the escalators would be completely unacceptable. In order to protect the public interest, we have launched an emergency tender to urgently carry out necessary repair works so that they would become operational as soon as possible, since it is clear to everyone how important they are for citizens,” said Dinko Bilić, the head of the City Office for Spatial Planning, Construction, Utilities and Transportation.
Translated from Jutarnji List (reported by Iva Badanjak).
