Zagreb student accommodation crisis easing.
New floors and furniture – beds, tables, cabinets and shelves. Very soon, all the rooms for more than 4,500 students at the Stjepan Radić and Cvjetno Naselje student dormitories will be just like that. The renovations began on 20 August and are in full swing. More than 350 employees work daily from Monday to Saturday from 7 am to 7 pm. They remove old windows, pull down the walls, install new pipes, reports Vecernji List on September 17, 2015.
“All pavilions were completely dismantled, and some already have new windows and we are starting to work on the facades”, explained Dubravko Bodanović, the site manager at the Stjepan Radić dormitory. The deadline for completion of the construction is Christmas. “So far, we are on schedule. Together with the interior of the dormitories, we are simultaneously working on the environment as well”, said Bodanović and noted that it was important that the rest of the dormitories operate normally, due to the fact that just seven of the 12 buildings are being renovated, while the others are already filled with students.
“I can see they are working every day, and everything is looking good, so students will be satisfied”, said Daniel Janečić, a kinesiology student who lives in a pavilion which is not being renovated.
Students Zvonimir Vuk, Nikola Maleković and Porin Tomljanović agree that new dormitories are looking good, but they believe the works could have begun earlier and should already have been finished. While some of the students have already moved in to the buildings which are not being renovated, the others must wait until Christmas and must find temporary accommodation for themselves. However, the Ministry of Education will give them a subsidy worth 400 kuna.
However, according to assistant manager of the Student Centre Ružica Rajšić, the payments are late because some of the students have not signed the contracts. “At least half the students must come and sign a subsidy contract in order for us to move with the payments, but so far only one fourth of them has done it”, said Rajšić and noted that after the renovations the rooms for students will be more expensive, so students will need to allocate 400-750 kuna for a room, depending on the category, while so far they had to pay between 200 and 600 kuna.
