New EBRD financing for Bosnia-Herzegovina motorway
22 December 2009
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is to provide Bosnia-Herzegovina with a € 21 million loan for the completion of construction of the Banja Luka - Gradiska motorway.
The loan will be used to finance the construction of the Mahovljani Interchange, which will complete the missing link on the Banja Luka - Gradiska motorway.
The motorway from Banja Luka to Gradiska, the first in the Republika Srpska, links the capital Banja Luka with the international transport Corridor X.
It is being built with financing from both the EBRD and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
The loan will be made to the Republika Srpska Motorways, a newly-established public company responsible for managing the motorway network.
The project includes the construction of a 1.8 km new two-lane motorway, four interchange two-lane slip roads, with a total length of 6.9 km, two viaducts, which carry two of the slip roads over the new motorway, and four other bridges within the interchange.
the project is co-financed by € 5 million in grant funds provided by the European Commission through its pre-accession programme, and € 0.5 million from the Central European Initiative and the Western Balkans Investment Framework.
To date the EBRD has invested more than € 328 million in the road sector in Bosnia-Herzegovina, with total commitments in the country exceeding € 1 billion.
Western Balkans Investment Framework is a joint grant and lending facility established by the European Commission, the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Council of Europe Development Bank to finance priority projects in the Western Balkans.
