Marija Raseta-Vukosavljevic

"The most important road, corridor 10, is a priority in the reconstruction of the present network. However, funding presents a great difficulty," Raseta-Vukosavljevic said in an interview to Monday's issue of the Frankfurt daily "Vesti".

She assessed that an expected donation from the European Investment Bank worth EUR45 million could be a solution to the reconstruction of Serbia's run-down roads, which are among the worst in Europe. Construction is set to begin in November.

The Minister of Transport and Telecommunications announced that representatives of the European Bank would visit Yugoslavia on September 24, after which tenders will be invited for carrying out the projects. Each project will be financed with EUR5 million.

"At this moment, it would be better to finance the reconstruction of roads with 50-year credits with a 1% interest rate. But no concession is profitable if the traffic flow is less than 12,000 vehicles per day. That's why we don't have a chance for concessions on many roads," the minister said.

After corridor 10, the first next step should be a "rehabilitation" of the Ibar highway, which the minister described as a "very problematic section."

The Ministry of Transport plans to reconstruct the existing roads with donations first and only afterwards to consider construction of new transport lines.

"But the fact is that there is no need for new roads! Most of the transport lines don't have sufficient traffic. The only thing we can do, if necessary, is to add a third lane to existing roads, or upgrade them in some other way," Raseta-Vukosavljevic said.

The reconstruction will commence as soon as the Federal government adopts the Law on foreign investments and thus takes over investment in road reconstruction from the Republic, with assistance from abroad.

"By the end of the year, Railway Transport Company "Belgrade" will receive two international credits of a total value of EUR113 million. The first credit, worth EUR57 million, is from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and it will most likely arrive by December. It will be used for reconstruction of electric locomotives, purchase of equipment and mechanization for the maintenance of railways and restructuring personnel to the company's needs. The second, EUR56 million credit, will also arrive at the end of the year from the European Investment Bank, and will be aimed at reconstruction of rails and infrastructure," the minister said.