Prime Minister Novalić: Hranjen Tunnel is being built with funds from the FBiH Government, and BPK Prime Minister Ćulov forgets to mention it

(Patria) - Regarding the statements by the Prime Minister of the Bosniak-Podrinje Canton Goražde, Edin Ćulov, about the works on the Hranjen tunnel, the Government of the Federation of BiH, which is the main financier of this most important infrastructural project for connecting Goražde with the capital of BiH, reminds of the financial allocations to date.

Namely, with 40 million KM secured from last year's federal budget for the construction of the Hranjen tunnel, the Government of the Federation of BiH, at its session held on April 6 this year, adopted the Program of Utilization of Funds "Capital transfers to public enterprises - Transfer for the construction of the Hranjen tunnel" in the amount of 20,000,000 KM, determined by the FBiH Budget for 2023.

"Thus, we have now made 60 million KM from the federal budget available for the construction of this tunnel, which will significantly bring Goražde closer to Sarajevo. Additionally, an extra 30 million KM has been secured this year through the Highways of Federation. We are grateful to the cantonal Prime Minister Ćulov for his moral and verbal support, which is welcome, but unfortunately, it cannot excavate even a meter of the tunnel. The tunnel is being built with financial resources secured by the Government of the Federation of BiH, which the Prime Minister of BPK Goražde, accidentally or not, forgot to mention. As a member of the construction monitoring committee, which he formed, colleague Ćulov can only monitor what is being built with the financial support secured by that committee, but those funds are not there. On the other hand, the Government of the Federation has legally regulated mechanisms for monitoring infrastructure investments," said the Prime Minister of the Federation of BiH, Fadil Novalić.

According to the assessment of the expert team of JP Autoceste FBiH, the final result will be a reduction in construction time to a period of three years. Also, the forecasts are that it will take about two years for the complete breakthrough of the tunnel.

Furthermore, with the funds secured by the Government of the Federation by March 31 this year, 88,134,000 KM has been paid for the executed works on the tunnel. While the total secured funds amount to more than 150 million KM, including all phases of the project (preparation of documentation, design, execution of works and supervision, expropriation, tunnel excavation, and all works on both sides of the tunnel).

This project has also been nominated in the Public Investment Program of the Federation of BiH, which is a prerequisite for the possibility of financing its realization from the federal budget, in accordance with the Decree of the FBiH Government on the preparation of the Public Investment Program in FBiH. Also, the project is aligned with the Transport Strategy of the Federation of BiH 2016 - 2030.