November 11 (SeeNews) - Bosnia's Serb Republic expects that the construction of a 17-kilometre long motorway section from the town of Bijeljina to Raca, on the border with Serbia, will be completed by the beginning of 2024, the Republic's transport minister Djordje Popovic said.
"Paralel with this, the Raca bridge and border crossing will be built," Popovic said in a statement on Tuesday.
The section is part of a planned motorway that will link the Serb Republic's main city Banja Luka to the Serbian capital Belgrade, thus also connecting Belgrade to the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.
Popovic said that the Serb Republic has received 11 bids in its tender for the construction of the 70-kilometre motorway between Vukosavlje and Raca, which is divided into three sections, i.e. Vukosavlje - Brcko, Brcko - Bijeljina and Bijeljina - Raca, and he expects contractors for the three sections to be selected soon in the second stage of the bidding process.
In August, local media reported that the motorway company of the Serb Republic, Autoputevi Republike Srpske, launched a 1.35 billion marka ($815 million/690 million euro) tender for the construction of the 70-kilometre motorway from Vukosavlje to the border with Serbia. According to the media reports, Turkish construction conglomerate Kalyon, as well as financial institutions such as Sparkasse and Turkey's Ziraat Bank, and companies from Serbia and China are interested in the project.
The Serb Republic is one of two autonomous entities that form Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other one is the Federation.
(1 euro = 1.95583 marka)