Four stars for rest and medical treatment – Merkur Special Hospital to start construction of luxury villa in downtown Vrnjacka Banja by end-summer

Next year, Vrnjacka Banja should get a luxurious rehabilitation and tourist facility. After a successful year, Merkur Special Hospital decided to expand its accommodation capacity. Therefore, it is planning to build a four-star villa, Dejan Stanojevic, the director of this institution, said to eKapija.

- The villa Romanija will be reconstructed, i.e., a modern, luxurious section with 100 beds will be constructed nearby. The new villa will have its own wellness center as well as a conference hall and a dining hall, its own offices and a water source. The facility will be intended for commercial guests, Stanojevic told our web portal at the recently finished Tourism Fair where Merkur made a noticeable appearance.

As our interlocutor explained, the project is already finished.

- We expect to get all the necessary papers for the construction with the help of our founder - the Health Ministry. Apart from that, I hope the state will enable us to find a private partner who would join us in our undertaking.

Stanojevic explained that it would be great to enter into a public-private partnership, but he stressed that it was first necessary to make amendments to regulations.

- It is necessary to make amendments and supplements to the Law on Public-Private Partnership. Namely, that law has recognized only state-owned and public companies, and we are an institution. It is necessary that changes to that law cover institutions as well, so we too can enter into a public-private partnership.

By the way, Merkur already has foreign partners interested in the project totaling EUR 3 mil – one of them from England and two from Russia. As Stepanovic noted, they are discussing possible partnership on this project with domestic investors as well. But even if they fail to reach agreement on partnership, Merkur will kick off the implementation of this project by itself.

- It would be nice to have a partner, but we can implement the project on our own so that I expect the works to begin by the end of the summer in any case – the director of Merkur Special Hospital explained.

New well at Sneznik

In late February, Merkur started works on a new exploration well at the Sneznik mineral spring. That project, funded by Merkur from its own resources, is valued at RSD 10 mil. The objective is to find new water bearing layer for the needs of supplying this well with water from the layers that have not been tapped into yet.

Merkur takes special steps so that the spring is fully protected from possible unwanted factors in the future and this is why it uses the latest methods in the construction works which are carried out in line with the project done by the Faculty of Mining and Geology.

The works should end by the year's end, and in 2015 Vrnjacka Banja will get a new well with mineral water, whose healing characteristics will help citizens and guests improve their health, Merkur announced.

M.S.