After the proposal of the State Minister of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina Edin Forto, the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the Draft Agreement between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Serbia on the joint reconstruction and modernization of the railway line Doboj – Tuzla – Zvornik – Loznica – Šabac – Ruma.
The Tuzla Canton hopes that the implementation of this project will bring back passenger rail transport, which currently does not exist in this part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Businessmen expect the electrification of the railway for faster exchange of goods. The reconstruction of the railway on this section is of exceptional importance for the entire country.
The train station in Tuzla has been empty for four years. Since mid-December 2019, not a single passenger train has arrived here, and not a single passenger train has left here. Then the Railways of Republika Srpska canceled the last line. Seven years before that, the Railways of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina did the same. Thus, the Tuzla canton, as the largest in the Federation and an economic center, was left without passenger trains.
This situation could change with the implementation of the agreement between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Serbia on the joint reconstruction and modernization of the Doboj – Tuzla – Zvornik – Loznica – Šabac – Ruma railway line.
“This electrification project would also enable the movement of passenger trains with sets adapted to the electric traction system, which would connect Tuzla with other regional centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Serbia,” announced the Public Relations Office of the Railways of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
ALEKSANDRA SIMIĆ, public relations officer, Railways of Republika Srpska
“These are certainly the plans of the Railways of Republika Srpska for the future period. With the reconstruction and modernization of the planned section of the railway, conditions are created for the establishment of passenger traffic.”
The total volume of transportation in 2023 achieved by individual routes on the Doboj – Tuzla – Zvornik railway is almost 3.5 million tons, and the volume of transportation of the cross-border railway station Zvornik is more than a million tons. The most important business entities, users of rail traffic services on this line are from the Tuzla Canton.
NEDRET KIKANOVIĆ, director of the Tuzla Cantonal Chamber of Commerce
“Everything we import raw materials for our production goes from the port of Ploče to Tuzla and that part of the railway is electrified, except for this part from Doboj to Zvornik and now it is electrified and the modernization of that track will mean a lot because of the exports we have to the Republic of Serbia. ”
A joint investment in the reconstruction of railway transport and the possibility of stronger cooperation leads Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia more safely towards European flows.
EDIN FORTO, Minister of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina
“With this agreement, if the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirms it, we open up the possibility to apply together with the Republic of Serbia for European funds, for grants that can help us to collect and carry out these fundamentally expensive projects.”
Forto points out that this is the first post-Dayton joint infrastructure project of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Serbia, which deserves the support of European financial institutions, BHRT writes.
