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Minsk residents disgruntled with stalled construction project complain to Lukashenka through Youtube

 

A group of Minsk residents have posted a video statement on Youtube calling on Alyaksandr Lukashenka to take measures to finish the construction of an apartment house on Lahoyski Trakt Street.

The construction project started as far back as July 2008 and should have been finished within 16 months, Nadzeya Kalimava, a member of the association of the future owners of apartments in the house, told BelaPAN.

"Since then, three general contractors have come and gone and the deadline for the completion of the project has been postponed seven times," Ms. Kalimava said. "One of the contractors, a private company called Layron, took the $500,000 collected by the association and disappeared. We also suffered losses because of a financial crisis."

Last week, the capital construction directorate of the Savetski district administration reminded the association's members once again that they should either pay more money to the contractor or terminate their contracts, Mr. Kalimava said.

"We make payments in strict accordance with the contracts, but our bank transfers money to the contractor depending on the pace of the construction work," she said. "The project was stalled for a long time, and the contractor made the problem worse by failing to apply for advance payments from the bank."

People do not want to revoke their contracts because many of them had been paying for the construction with low-interest loans and would not be able to obtain such loans any more, Mr. Kalimava said.

According to her, the association has lodged many complaints with the Savetski district administration and other agencies, including the State Control Committee, but to no avail