Work to reconstruct some 11 dormitories has already complete in the Student City, the main student campus of Tirana University, while six more other buildings are about to complete in the coming weeks, and work to restore the final three dormitories is scheduled to kick off next week.
Prime Minister Edi Rama and the Mayor of Tirana Erion Veliaj today visited the dormitories No. 24 and 25 in the Student City, where work is underway to upgrade the buildings’ interior infrastructure. “The dormitory building No. 24 has 88 rooms with an accommodation capacity for 240 students. Work is currently taking place to improve the shared premises. New showers are currently being installed and the work will go on with the installation of the plumbing and electricity network,” the director of student residences Anila Shehu said.
“The last three dormitory buildings remain and work to upgrade them is expected to start next week. Reconstruction of 11 buildings has completed, while work is underway on five or six other buildings,” Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj said, adding that the buildings’ maintenance is the next challenge and the idea of hiring students themselves as administrators of their dormitories remains the best solution. “We recruit an excessive staff, including receptionists and building administrators etc.. Everything needs to be maintained. We thought that since workers employed in these positions are low paid specialists it would be best that we employ students instead. In this way we also create some new jobs available to students. If something goes wrong, if showers or other installations fail then an administrator who is a student himself will deal with these problems,” Veliaj said.
Mrs. Shehu noted that the student representation has significantly eased communication with students. “A student representative has been elected in every dormitory building and he or she works to tackle the maintenance and cohabitation-related issues, as well as other problems concerning students. It is much easier to communicate with every student through a representative for each dormitory,” she said.
In the meantime, the student card is set to enter into forces starting from October 1 and its production and delivery scheme is expected to be implemented in other cities across the country too. “Something that has turned out successful and that is set to enter into force on Oct 1 is the Student Card. We are working to reach a deal with another commercial bank that will offer zero interest rate on student soft loans and facilitate transactions for students. The student card scheme will be implemented in other cities too. The scheme is ready,” Veliaj said.
Prime Minister Rama underlined that work proceeds on schedule in other cities home to student residences. “We are on time to provide decent accommodation conditions for the majority of university students. Few dormitories still need to go reconstruction here (Student City). Work is already underway in the city of Korça and is expected to kick off in Shkodra over the next few days as everything is ready. The same goes for Elbasan, Vlora and Gjirokaster.”
Tirana Mayor Veliaj hailed the successful cooperation with the private sector, without help of which many projects on construction of new school buildings in Tirana would have been a mission impossible. “Despite debates – I am talking about Tirana – collaboration with the private sector to implement projects on construction of new school buildings, the incinerators, has been a success story. The incinerator of Tirana would have never been built without the help private sector. The same goes for the new schools built in Tirana, where work to build some 16 new schools is underway,” he said.
PM Rama acknowledged that collaboration with the private sector has been the right solution to press ahead with construction of major development projects across the country. “This is undoubtedly the only mechanism. Earlier today I watched a video showing ongoing works on construction of the Arber Road and almost half of this spectacular project has completed. It is a funding that the government could not afford, otherwise it would have had constructed some 30 years ago. On the other hand, these projects should not be seen as isolated cases. One might well ask: Is the government unable to earmark a funding of 300 million euros? But the government should provide funding for many other projects across the country. It is impossible for the government to collect as much as needed. Arberi Road project is set to complete by 2021 and the government will settle the payment in instalments by 2031, which means that people will have 10 years available to enjoy the new road. For the government it would have taken 13 years to build the road. An idea according to which the private company just receives the money and runs away. The private company invests its own money over a period of time until a project completes and the public benefits it at no extra cost. Meanwhile, the government pays the company back in settlements and takes over the project as a public property,” Rama said.
