Berbić: With the development of cycling, we want to open a new tourist story for Sarajevo

The project of building a cycling path in Sarajevo has been active for a year and we are working on it together with the City Administration of Sarajevo, said Zlatko Berbić, president of the Cycling Federation of BiH for the BiH news agency Patria.

Namely, as announced today by the City Administration, the cycling path will run along the main city longitudinal in both directions. The path will be about 7 km long and will be built in phases, according to European standards, on the stretch from Nedžarići to Skenderija. Horizontal and vertical signage, lighting, rest areas with benches and fountains are planned, and wireless internet (WI-FI) services will be available. 

- We are absolutely interested in Sarajevo getting a proper cycling path. Not only for the needs of the citizens of Sarajevo, but to open a new story about tourism in Sarajevo. We want people to come for summer tourism in the future, to be able to rent a bicycle in every hotel and spend time using bicycles as a means of transport, to tour the city, go to the mountains, and be safe in traffic terms – said Berbić, expressing hope that the path will be opened next year, although its completion is planned for two years.

The Institute for Architecture, Urbanism and Spatial Planning of the Faculty of Architecture Sarajevo, after completing the Conceptual Design, has proceeded to the execution (Main) design, which should be completed by the end of next week. In the meantime, the City of Sarajevo has sent requests for urban planning consent for the construction of the cycling path to the addresses of three municipalities (Novi Grad, Novo Sarajevo, and Centar). Consent has so far been issued by the Municipality of Novi Grad, given that the construction of the future cycling path will begin in the area of this municipality.
The next step is the issuance of building permits by all three municipalities, in order to commence the construction works on the cycling path.

- All the mayors are interested in joining this story. Cycling is a trend in Europe, and the European Commission has allocated 6.5 billion euros by 2020 for the development of cycling. The largest part of this is realized through the EuroVelo (European Cycle Route) project, with over 70,000 km of roads already built connecting European countries. Unfortunately, BiH is not on that map, and one of the tasks is for us to get on that map as well. Young people who want to explore other countries in a different way will be able to come and cycle through BiH – Berbić told NAP.

Otherwise, the need for a cycling path in the capital of BiH has existed for years, and after the organization of two races: Sarajevo Grand Prix held on June 22 and Giro di Sarajevo, that need became stronger.