Minister of Infrastructure Milutin Mrkonjic confirmed that the Board of Directors of the European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved the first tranche of a loan for the reconstruction of the Belgrade bridge Gazela, amounting to €10 million.

Mrkonjic told the Tanjug news agency that the EIB Board of Directors decided to approve the first instalment in order to begin reconstruction of the bridge, while the approval of the remaining €33 million will depend on the implementation of the project to resettle the people who lived under the Gazela bridge.

He said that this primarily refers to the displacement of Roma who lived near the bridge and creating conditions for their normal life in Belgrade and in southern Serbia.

The EIB and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) think that, despite the progress achieved in the implementation of the project, there are other unresolved problems, such as providing sustainable housing solutions.

The Minister said that the two international financial institutions will provide technical support to Serbia in order to enable it to continue to implement the agreed measures for the resettlement of the Roma.

He pointed out that Serbia has fulfilled all the necessary conditions for the realisation of the tender related to the Belgrade roundabout, and recalled that the negotiations were conducted with two banks on a loan amounting to €160 million.

Mrkonjic announced that a tender for the section of the Batajnica-Dobanovci highway will be announced in the next fifteen days, and added that the expropriation of land has been completed and that works will begin in the first half of June.