SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), March 1 (SeeNews) – Bosnia's Federation is expected start tendering for the first tranche of a road repairs and upgrades project in the first half of 2017, and for the second tranche in the second quarter 2018, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said on Wednesday.
The EBRD and the Federation earlier signed a 65 million euro ($68.5 million) loan for the works, the lender said in a statement.
The first tranche of the project will go to finance repairs of damages caused to the main road network by heavy floods in May 2014, while the second relates to the construction of new road sections including the bypasses in Mostar, Bihac, Bugojno, Donji Vakuf, Grude and Novi Travnik, and a part of the road section Bihac - Bosanska Krupa.
The project will be carried out by state-owned road construction company JP Ceste Federacije.
Bosnia's state-level finance ministry earlier said the project should be finalised by December 31, 2019, as the Federation must also allocate an additional 6 million euro from its budget.
n May 2014 Southeastern Europe was hit by devastating floods that are estimated to have cost Bosnia around 2 billion euro and Serbia around 1.5 billion euro.
The Federation is one of the two entities that form Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other is the Serb Republic.
($=0.9502 euro)