The Minister of Transport and Communications of FB&H Denis Lasić yesterday visited the Neum Municipality and held a meeting with the Mayor of Neum Živko Matuško and his associates.
On this occasion, it was discussed on the construction of the main road M-17.3 Neum-Stolac. The Federal Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Motorways of FB&H included the road Neum-Stolac in the Program of modernization of main roads in FB&H, which was forwarded from the Federal Ministry to the Government of FB&H for further procedure of approval.
“Construction and modernization of this road is of great significance for the Neum Municipality, since this road would enable better and faster traffic connection of Neum with the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it would also contribute to even faster development of tourism. Current situation with traffic connectivity of Neum is very poor, and the lack of adequate modern road is particularly evident during the tourist season, when traffic jams are very frequent,” Matuško said.
Financing of this project will be ensured from the loans of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank, amounting to over 40 million EUR in total.
Matuško informed the Federal Minister about the issues related to expropriation of land and highly valuable olive groves at certain sections of the road.
“Resolution of property issues is of great significance and they should be given priority in order to start the construction of the first and very important section of the road Biroćanac-Cerovica already in the spring of 2016. The Motorways of FB&H have already created conceptual designs for certain sections, and it is currently being worked on the creation of main project for the tunnel “Žaba”. Moreover, works have already been conducted at the sections Stari Neum-Kiševo and Kiševo-Babin Do. The “Feasibility study and environmental effect study” was conducted for the entire section, except for the bypass of Stolac, which was a prerequisite for the access to loan sources of financial means. Given that the study has been conducted in 2009, its update is currently in progress upon the request of the European Investment Bank,” Lasić said.
“Construction of this road has already been announced several times, but for the first time ever the conditions for serious implementation of this project have been created, instead of simple announcements,” Lasić added.
(Source: novovrijeme.ba)
