Vesic and Forto want better road connection between Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina: 3 high-speed roads built

Photo: Marko Jovanovic

Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Goran Vesic today received Minister of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Edin Forto. They met at the Government of Serbia to discuss joint projects between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the field of transport.

Minister Vesic stressed that some of the projects are in progress and that the completion of the roads that are being extensively worked on is expected at the end of this and next year.

"Our states have lived in one country for many years, we are brothers and we have to be more connected than in some other countries. We are currently working on three expressways and a highway connecting Serbia and BiH, which I am very happy about. The first is Sremska Raca-Kuzmin, which then continues to Bjeljina, a section of the highway Belgrade-Sarajevo, which BiH will work on later, and we will have the first highway between Belgrade and Sarajevo, which should be finished by the end of this year.

We are working on the high-speed road Ruma-Sabac-Loznica, which should be done by the end of next year, and which will have a connection with Bosnia and Herzegovina at a border crossing. We are also working on the road Pozega-Kotroman, and for that project we expect to sign a contract on the realization of that highway as well during next year, which will enable us to have a connection to Visegrad and to have four border crossings on the high-speed roads and highways themselves," said Minister Vesic.

He added that Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were not so well connected even when they were a part of Yugoslavia.

The minister said that a discussion was also started on possible joint projects in railway transport, and that they defined a project with which they will present to the European Union together.

Edin Forto said that the emphasis will be on the border crossings that Serbia has already started working on.

"I am very happy that we were well received in Belgrade and that we talked about very specific things. Above all I think it is very important for the border crossings that Serbia has already initiated, that we have a response from BiH as well. It is very important that the railway corridor, that is the corridor within BiH that goes from Banja Luka through Doboj and Tuzla to Zvornik and further into Serbia, be revived, modernized and that the flow of people and goods be something that is much more advanced compared to what we have today. The flow of people and goods is crucial for the development of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. I look forward to future cooperation," said Minister Forto.

(Telegraf.rs)