Koçiu and Demo inspect Kombinat: government and Tirana municipality commit to speeding up reconstruction

Seven years after the November 26, 2019 earthquake, completing the reconstruction process in Kombinat, Tirana, remains a priority requiring accelerated institutional intervention. Deputy Prime Minister Albana Koçiu and Interior Minister Ervin Demo visited Unit 6, where they demanded that procedures be sped up and coordination between the government and the Municipality of Tirana improved.

Koçiu said that so far more than 340 apartments have been distributed to families affected by the earthquake, while around 650 families continue to receive rent bonuses and are waiting to get their homes.

“Procedures have started, but the pace is far too slow. Seven years have passed; we must take measures and complete this process at a much faster pace,” Koçiu said.

According to her, there are currently around 150 built apartments in Kombinat, of which 75 are awaiting the lottery process, while for others work continues on water supply and sewerage connections, with the aim of completing them and moving to the distribution phase. At the same time, at another construction site in Kombinat where the procurement procedure has been completed, 223 new apartments are expected to be built.

In parallel, the procedure has begun for the construction of 100 more apartments. Interior Minister Ervin Demo said residents have the right to demand a final answer after such a long wait.

“People are right — after all these years, now seven years, we must give them a final answer,” Demo said, stressing that the government will work together with the Municipality of Tirana to resolve the bottlenecks that have hampered the process. Demo also said the central government would intervene with state budget funding to speed up reconstruction in Tirana, while the Municipality’s projects would continue to be funded by it.

“We will also intervene in Tirana with funding from the central government budget to speed up the reconstruction process in Tirana,” the minister said, adding that the goal is for the first signals for new construction sites, funded by the Albanian government through the Albanian Development Fund, to come within this year.

According to Minister Demo, the intervention will focus on two directions: completing the built apartments as soon as possible, including resolving issues with OSHEE (power utility) and water supply connections, and preparing new sites to meet the demand of families still waiting for their homes. For her part, Koçiu stressed that inter-institutional cooperation must serve to avoid further delays.

“People need to have their home as they had it before that 2019 tragedy, and we have the obligation to respond to them and not hide behind the justification of procedures,” she said.

The deputy prime minister underlined that every procedure must respect legal requirements, but this must not become a reason for delays. “Together, we will have to push this process forward as quickly as possible, to bring it to an end here and throughout the Municipality of Tirana,” Koçiu said.

The joint commitment of the government and the Municipality of Tirana aims to give families affected by the earthquake a final solution, speeding up both the distribution of completed apartments and the construction of new homes on sites to be funded going forward.