Minister of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina Edin Forto and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure of the Republic of Croatia Oleg Butković signed an agreement between the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Government of Croatia on the reconstruction of the Brčko-Gunja bridge on Tuesday in Sarajevo.
The Brčko – Gunja Bridge on the Sava River was built back in the time of Austria-Hungary, and due to its dilapidation, freight traffic is limited over that facility. The authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia agreed to jointly maintain the bridges.
The Minister of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Edin Forto, stated that construction work on the Brčko-Gunja bridge should begin by the end of next year and that the design phase will follow in the following period.
He said that the reconstruction of the mentioned bridge will be financed equally by Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, but the exact amount will be known when the design and procurement are completed.
The two ministers also discussed cooperation on road infrastructure construction and bridge reconstructions.
“The first next bridge is Novi Grad-Dvor, then the bridge from Orašje, and we have several other projects that are ready to start quickly. We also talked about the expressway that will connect Croatia with the Una-Sana canton. The expressway will go down through central Bosnia, through Jajce, towards Travnik and Sarajevo. It is a corridor that goes further from Sarajevo towards Podgorica. It is a corridor that we will jointly try to enter into the network of European corridors, which, after being entered into the network, can receive significant funding and withdrawals of funds from the European Union funds”, said Forto.
They also discussed railway infrastructure, with a focus on the reconstruction of the Una railway.
“We have agreed to soon start designing the reconstruction of the Una railway. It is a railway that in the 80s was one of the most modern in the region. It is now neglected and in need of reconstruction. “We will start working on the project, and then together we will look for financing for the reconstruction of that railway,” said Forto.
The Minister of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure of the Republic of Croatia, Oleg Butković, added that the Brčko-Gunja bridge is in a very bad condition and that Croatian Roads will start implementing the project urgently.
“A tender for the bridge reconstruction project will be announced. Next year, the physical reconstruction of the bridge will begin,” said Butković, announcing that, in addition, a draft agreement for the border bridge Novi Grad – Dvor is ready.
Both ministers stated that they will do everything to establish a railway line between Sarajevo and Zagreb as soon as possible.
“In Croatia, we are in the process of rebuilding the railway infrastructure, since we have mostly built the highway infrastructure. We built most of the airports, seaports. It is now the decade of the railways. These are big projects and big investments”, said Butković, adding that the Una railway is very important for Croatia and its ports.
The signing of the agreement was preceded by a bilateral meeting of the delegations of the two countries in the building of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, AA reports.
Photo courtesy of AA
