With the arrival of Fiat, the city of Kragujevac was left without a race track for so-called National Class car races, and it will also lose a karting track and a picnic grounds this week because the Serbian-Italian company is going to fence off few tens of hectares of its space – all the way to the bank of the Lepenica river. However, the company Fiat Srbija has set aside 11 million euros for the reconstruction of plants for the treatment of wastewater from the automotive plant. That project is close to end and the aim of the company is to revive the Lepenica after nearly 25 years of neglect.
The area that the citizens of Kragujevac use as a picnic grounds now needs to be utilized by Fiat to store new automobiles. In return, the company will have a lit 1.5-kilometer pedestrian walk built on the other side of the river.
Out of about 250 ha owned by Zastava Vozila Group, the company Fiat automobili Srbija obtained over 140 ha. That area includes a parking lot, spanning from the bridge near the housing project Sest Topola to former Zastava Development Institute. Works on the demolition of that institute run parallel to the fencing off of the area that the citizens of Palilula and Stanovo had been using as their picnic grounds until recently, especially on weekends. People who live in this area say that they fear the changes, but they do not want to organize a protest. The management of Fiat announces that the company will finance the construction of a bicycle trail and a pedestrian walk, worth few million euros.
