BANJA LUKA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), October 2 (SeeNews) – Bosnia's Serb Republic said on Tuesday it completed a 402 million euro ($463 million) project for the construction of the 72 km-long Banja Luka-Doboj motorway.
The president of the Serb Republic, Milorad Dodik, opened on Tuesday the 25-km long Drugovici-Prnjavor section, the last part of the Banja Luka-Doboj motorway, the Serb Republic government said in a statement.
"This is the road of national integration because in the next six years we will build a motorway from Doboj to the Drina river, or to Serbia," Dodik said during the opening ceremony.
The Serb Republic plans to build a motorway linking Banja Luka to Prijedor,as well as high-speed roads that will connect Pale and Sokolac to neighbouring Serbia, the Serb Republic prime minister, Zeljka Cvijanovic, said.
The Banja Luka-Doboj motorway has been named January 9 - the date of the inception of the Serb Republic in 1992, just prior to the beginning of the war that tore up the former Yugoslavia.
The construction of the motorway was financed with the proceeds of a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and works were carried out by a consortium comprising Bosnian company Integral Inzenjering and Macedonia’s Granit.
The Serb Republic is one of two autonomous entities forming Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other is the Federation.
($ = 0.867491 euro)