It replaced an unsafe ferry, three decades later the question remains: Will crossing Pavlović Bridge finally be free?

(Patria) - Pavlović Bridge border crossing, on the Drina river near Bijeljina, is an official international crossing between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. It is specific in that a toll is charged for crossing the bridge, which houses the border. The thirty-year concession based on which the decision to charge a toll was made expires next year. Will this bring changes to the functioning of this crossing?

When it was built 29 years ago, Pavlović Bridge on the Drina river, on the border between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, replaced an unsafe ferry that locals from Semberija and Mačva used to cross to the other bank. Today, its frequency is measured in millions of crossings annually.

"In 2024, 1,171,838 people and 343,260 vehicles crossed. In the first two months of this year, 171,465 people and 101,357 vehicles crossed," says Predrag Santrač, border control inspector at GP "Pavlović Bridge".

Pavlović Bridge is one of the first examples of public-private partnership, but also the only bridge on the Drina, between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, where a toll is charged. Even those in the border region are not exempt.

"We from the border region have no benefits, we don't know what will happen in the future when it transfers to the Republic of Serbia. I have been crossing very often for 30 years, I am originally from Mačva, I live and work in Bijeljina, and I also have property in Serbia. Especially in the summer months when I have some seasonal work, it happens that I have crossed eight times in one day, and paid the toll eight times," says Slobodan Đalamić.

These days, the bridge is once again in the public spotlight because its thirty-year concession expires next year. After the concession agreement expires, the bridge will become the property of Serbia, and they will decide whether crossing will continue to be charged. Until then, the toll collection of 180 dinars, or about three convertible marks, is carried out by the company "Drina River Bridge", which is also responsible for maintaining the bridge. BHRT could not get their comment on what is expected after the concession expires. On the other hand, locals from both sides of the Drina hope that from next year they will be able to cross the bridge for free.

The construction of Pavlović Bridge lasted four years and cost four million dollars. The access roads were built by the state of Serbia, and the bridge itself by Slobodan Pavlović, a businessman from Semberija with an address in Chicago.