May 30 (SeeNews) - Serbia's government is investing 300 million euro ($334 million) in the development of the country's water transport, infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic said on Thursday.
Total investment in the sector will reach 500 million euro if the projects of private firms are included in the calculation, Mihajlovic said, according to a press release issued by the infrastructure ministry.
"We will build new ports in Belgrade, Sremska Mitrovica and Bogojevo, we will reconstruct the ship locks in the Djerdap 1 and Djerdap 2 hydropower plants and on the Tisa river, and we will ensure that our rivers will be navigable year-round," Mihajlovic said during a Serbia-Russia business forum in Belgrade.
A total of 7.5 million tonnes of cargo were transported on the Danube and Sava rivers in Serbia in 2015, while this year the cargo traffic is expected to reach 12 million tonnes, Mihajlovic said.
"Our goal is to reach 15 million tonnes in the coming years. This shows that we are slowly returning the water transport to the European transport corridor map."
In November, Mihajlovic said Serbia aims to include the Danube river in pan-European Corridor X on its territory by 2021. Corridor X will connect Salzburg in Austria to the Greek port of Thessaloniki, passing through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and North Macedonia.
($ = 0.897999 euro)