Environment activist group “Qytetarët për parkun” announced today that Mayor of Tirana Erion Veliaj has officially approved the destruction of another park in Tirana. According to the activists, Mayor Veliaj has signed the building permit for several buildings on the site of the park near the offices of the Municipal Police, in an area known as the “Bus Station.”
A few months ago, the municipality had already started to cut down the trees and remove the vegetation from one of the few public spaces available to the inhabitants of the area.
According to the activists, the construction company involved is Arlis Ndërtim, which is owned by Besnik Sulaj, who also owns the Taiwan complex in central Tirana and the former state company Armo.
The public park near the Municipal Police was inaugurated in 2015 by former Mayor Lulzim Basha. In that period, Prime Minister Edi Rama tried several times to dismantle Basha’s project by using the site as a garbage dump. The degradation this caused in the park has made it easier for Veliaj to allow for the construction work to commence.
