Minister: Lack of new government an obstacle to infrastructure projects

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A number of infrastructure projects, including the construction of the Belgrade-Sarajevo highway, are on hold because they need to be ratified by the central government, which has not been formed after elections in October 2018, the Minister of Transport and Communications in Bosnia’s Serb-majority part said on Monday.

“We are preparing some activities, while some are stagnating because of obstructions on various government levels,” Minister Nedjo Trninic said.

He offered a part of the pan-European VC corridor as an example, saying that the government of the semi-autonomous Republika Srpska (RS) entity has completed the highway to Doboj and that the VC corridor would further connect Banja Luka and Sarajevo with Belgrade.

The construction company has already started working on the first phase and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has approved 150 million Euro for the construction of the part from Doboj to the border of the other semi-autonomous entity, the Federation (FBiH), but the project has not yet been approved by the central government and parliament so the money can not be transferred, he said.

The Minister said there were some actions undertaken regarding the road towards Vukosavlje and further toward the Brcko District and that the government is negotiating with a Turkish company about the construction of 31 kilometers toward Bijeljina.

Serbia would then help build the section from Bijeljina to Raca on the Serbian border, the Minister said.

However, the bridge in Raca is, again, a problem, Trninic said, because the central government is repeatedly removing the bilateral agreement with Serbia from the agenda.

He announced the construction of a fast road from Sarajevo towards Pale, over Rogatica towards Belgrade and said that road will cost about one billion Bosnian Marks.