October 13 (SeeNews) - Bosnian company Euroing has completed the main design of the future international airport in the northwestern town of Bihac, project company Aerodrom Bihac said.
The main design includes construction plans for all buildings, facilities, water supply and sewerage systems, electricity grids; the installation of equipment and machinery; fire protection and work safety studies for all facilities, Aerodrom Bihac said in a Facebook post on Saturday.
The planned route of the runway as well as the entire associated infrastructure such as access roads and parking lots are also part of the main design.
"This brings us one step closer to the urban planning permit, and with the main design and urban permit we are creating conditions for the issuing of a building permit," news daily Nezavisne Novine quoted Aerodromi Bihac CEO Adnan Bajric as saying.
The project could be realized in the next three years but financing remain the biggest problem, according to Bajric.
Due to the coronavirus crisis, the government of Bosnia's Federation has allocated only 300,000 marka from its 2020 budget for the project, much less than the originally planned 2.5 million marka ($1.5 million/1.3 million euro), Nezavisne said.
Last month, the Federation environment ministry awarded an environmental permit for the construction of the airport.
Bihac currently has only a small sport airport. In 2016, the Federation decided to work towards building a bigger airport for civilian flights to help boost the economy of the region.
As part of the project, in July 2019, Sarajevo-based engineering company Euro-Asfalt started construction works on a new 300-metre test runway section at Bihac Airport. The total value of the works is some 2 million marka.
The construction of Bihac Airport could require an estimated investment of some 100 million marka.
Last year, the Federation government allocated some 5.5 million marka from its 2019 budget bill to finance the project.
The Federation is one of two autonomous entities that form Bosnia. The other one is the Serb Republic.
(1 euro = 1.95583 marka)