The reconstruction site of the nine-year school building in the village of Petrele is one of the 14 educational facilities that are being built and designed to be larger, safer and more beautiful than the buildings damaged by the earthquake last November.

“It is going to be probably one of the most beautiful school buildings in the Republic,” Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj during the inspection of the construction work along with the Prime Minister Edi Rama.

The school building features a modern and functional design and layout, organized in three corpuses; the nine-year school classrooms, preschool education environments and a separate building that comprises third corpus, which will house the laboratories and the gym. This school too is being built according to the vision of the school as community centre. The most fantastic infrastructure components include the five outdoor sport grounds.

A total of 22 new schools will be built in Tirana, including construction of nine educational facilities that will be funded by the international donors. “Construction of 14 new schools is underway, 11 of which are being built through state budget funds. Three schools are being built through the funding provided by Qatar Fund for Development, which pursues its own procurement procedures currently at a final stage,” Tirana Mayor Veliaj said, adding that 11 educational buildings are being built by the Municipality through the public-private-partnership contracts.

The post-earthquake reconstruction process, including construction of the educational facilities, is well underway in other areas of Tirana too. Mayor Veliaj said that construction of new schools in Kombinat neighbourhood is set to kick off soon. 

“The Council of Minister’s decision to construct new residential blocs in Vaqarr and Peza has been already adopted. An information office will open in Kombinat to clarify local residents on the way how the new residential neighbourhood will work,” Veliaj added.

The infrastructure investments in Petrele, like everywhere else in Tirana, have given properties’ value a boost. The new road, the sports grounds, the hippodrome – Mayor Veliaj went on saying – have increased the value of the land properties in Petrele from 1.000 lek per square meter to around 8.000 lek per square meter.