February 13 (SeeNews) - A consortium comprising two Bosnian companies, Prijedorputevi and Kozaraputevi, has launched the construction of a 3.4 million marka ($1.9 million/1.7 million euro) bridge in Banja Luka, the main city of Bosnia's Serb Republic, the city authorities said.
Works began on February 12 and the bridge should be completed in 10 months, the city government said in a press release on Wednesday.
The project will be fully financed by the city budget, without the need to take out credits, Banja Luka mayor Igor Radojicic said in the statement.
He added that the construction of the bridge is part of the city's goal to build four bridges in five years.
"We hope to meet the deadline, and if possible, we will try to finish it even earlier," the CEO of Kozaraputevi, Dejan Gakovic, was quoted as saying in the statement.
The consortium had filed the sole bid in the tender for the construction of the 65-metre long and 11-metre wide bridge.
The bridge will have two 3.5-metre wide traffic lanes and two-metre wide pedestrian lanes.
The Serb Republic is one of two autonomous entities forming Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other one is the Federation.
(1 euro = 1.95583 marka)