UNMIK ON AIR

3^rd February 2004

(Valon A. Syla)

Slug: 70 percent of the Transportation Budget is spent keeping existing roads in Kosovo driveable...

Hello and welcome to UNMIK on air

(Atmosphere of the village and the bus)

For many years the intercity bus from Prishtina picked up passengers from the village of Dardhishte on a dirt road. Villagers say the bus often never came… sometimes due to bad weather… other times due to bad road conditions.

Stranded one too many times, some villagers left Dardhishtë. But now a group of local shopkeepers, traders and businessmen decided to take matters into their own hands and finance a road to connect Dardhishtë with the main road to Prishtina. Naman Ahmeti is a shop owner in Dardhishtë who is involved in the Road Construction Project:

CUT: “You can see the road by yourself, vehicles get damaged and the life in this village is nearly paralyzed. But we decided to build the road because we know its importance and I thank the contributors from Tërnava. It is not needed anymore for people to migrate after roads, but we want roads to reach people. This will also prevent the migration to urban settlements like Prishtina”.

Music up and down

“The road will start from here after the climate gets better, probably in early spring. Engineers have measured the road as you can see. I believe that with this road we will have a better life.”

The planned road will stretch 6 kilometers and snake through 6 villages and towns in the Lap Region. Most importantly say backers of the road project: the road will be a vital artery for the towns and villages by connecting them to the larger road network in Kosovo.

The villagers in Dardhishtë collected some 120 thousand €uros for the road project and the Ministry of Transportation put up the rest-- totaling more than 600 thousand €uros.

Ramë Qupeva, heads the Department for Road Infrastructure in the Ministry of Transportation:

CUT: Self-initiative is very important because of two reasons, firstly it shows the interest of inhabitants to create better life conditions and secondly it enables the ministry of transportation to implement its priorities. But even in this cases of self initiative ministry of Transportation is not able to execute all the claims and needs.”

Without a reliable road network in Kosovo and direct connections with international transportation routes, it is hard to achieve economic development and attract investors to villages like Dardhishtë says Qupeva.

Roads like the one planned for Dardhishtë are not alone. The Ministry of Transportation will soon start building the Prishtina-Durrës road that will soon give Kosovo access to the port of Durrës on the Adriatic Sea. The road will also connect Merdare to the Nish highway, which runs internationally connecting south Eastern Europe with Central Europe.

As the Ministry of Transportation undertakes plans to build new roads, some wonder how Kosovo will be able to afford these projects.

The maintenance of existing roads in Kosovo already eats up 70 percent of the transportation budget.

Again, Qupeva of the Ministry of Transportation:

CUT “Our ministry during this year presented to the government a recommendation for extending the main roads, and some of the regional roads which have a more than 13 thousand vehicles traveling on them per day”

Even as the villagers in Dardhishtë received financial support and are praised by the government for initiating their own road project, not everyone is pleased. Citing fiscal responsibility, European Union advisers to the Ministry of Transportation favor maintaining existing roads, rather than break ground on new road projects. Jozef Zuallaert is the International advisor to the Ministry of Transportation:

CUT “Before thinking about big new road projects, it is important for public to know how much the existing road network cost to maintain. It’s important first to take care about the roads you have, and then start thinking about big new road projects.”

Observers say it is likely the Ministry of Transportation will need to turn to the European Union and the World Bank for additional support to finance the Road building projects… in the meantime; Dardhishtë road project breaks ground this spring. And currently Prishtina-Durrës road is in contract bidding phase.

…We’ve come to the end of this edition of UNMIK on Air, thanks for listening.