BANJA LUKA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), October 5 (SeeNews) – The new border crossing between Bosnia and Croatia in Gradiska will be completed by the end of March next year, Bosnia's Indirect Taxation Authority said.
The border crossing, located on the Gradiska-Banja Luka motorway, will be the largest in Bosnia and Herzegovina and will divert traffic from the central part of Gradiska where the current crossing is located, the taxation authority said in a statement on Wednesday.
The first phase of works, worth 8 million marka ($4.8 million/4.1 million euro), has already been completed, while the second, worth 14 million marka, is currently underway.
The Gradiska border crossing, on the Sava river, is one of two border crossings in Bosnia where exports of products of animal and plant origin will be permitted.
It, however, won’t be put into operation until a bridge is built to connect the two countries over Sava. Although a tender for the construction of the bridge was launched in 2013, the project has made little progress. A new tender has been announced, to be held some time next year.
Earlier media reports suggested that Croatia threatened to block the project if Bosnia remained opposed to Croatia's plans to connect the Peljesac peninsula with its mainland via a bridge that would span the bay between the two countries. However, according to the Bosnian authorities the issue was solved this year with the help of the EU.
(1 euro=1.95583 Bosnian marka)