September 21 (SeeNews) - Bosnia's Federation environmental ministry awarded an environmental permit for the construction of an international airport in the northwestern town of Bihac, the Federation's government said.
The permit will support the further development of the Bihac Airport project, which is one of the key strategic projects for the future development of this part of Bosnia, the acting head of Bihac Airport, Adnan Bajric, was quoted as saying in a statement published by the Federation's government on Friday.
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 ($1.2 million/1.0 million euro).
According to earlier media reports, the construction of Bihac Airport could be completed in two to four years, requiring an estimated investment of some 100 million marka, including all infrastructure works and road connections.
Last year, the Federation government allocated some 5.5 million marka support for the development of Bihac Airport from its 2019 budget bill.
The Federation is one of two autonomous entities forming Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other one is the Serb Republic.
(1 euro = 1.95583 marka)