February 28 (SeeNews) - Albania and Montenegro signed an agreement to build a cross-border bridge on the Bojana river, also known as Buna river, which is expected to strengthen economic development in the area, the Montenegrin government said.
The two neighbouring countries agreed to jointly finance the construction of the bridge, with each of them covering half of the total cost of the project, the government of Montenegro said in a press release on Monday following a joint sitting of the two governments.
The bridge, estimated to cost 9 million euro ($9.5 million), will shorten the travel distance from Montenegro's Ulcinj to Albania's Velipolje to just 1 kilometre from the current 73 kilometres, according to an earlier statement by the Montenegrin government.
The two countries have also agreed to open a joint border checkpoint, Sveti Nikola-Pulaj, near the bridge on the territory of Albania to improve the movement of citizens, facilitate cross-border traffic and boost tourism. Albania will finance the construction of the border checkpoint, while Montenegro will cover the costs for IT integration of its border services at the checkpoint.
($ = 0.942418 euro)