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It will take at least two months to repair the railway line to Ploče that was damaged in the floods
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Losses of Railways FBiH and RS daily 325,000KM
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Tomorrow meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Transport and Communications FBiH
SARAJEVO – Five million KM and between two and three months will be needed to repair the railway line towards Ploče, which was damaged due to the disasters that affected Konjic and Jablanica, say the Railways of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina for CAPITAL.
They tell GIKIL (Global Ispat Koksne Industrije Lukavac) from Lukavac that they can last a maximum of one month, after which 900 employees in this company will be threatened, as well as 400 companies with which they cooperate.
Two passenger trains and a total of 13 freight trains operating on the Sarajevo-Ploče route do not depart according to schedule due to the track being completely destroyed on certain sections. For the FBiH Railways, this is a direct loss of 270,000 KM per day, but they hope that these losses will decrease as businessmen find alternative ports for transporting goods.
“It is estimated that around five million KM will be needed for the rehabilitation of the construction part of the railway and power plants. The rehabilitation of the two most critical parts of the railway can last from two to three months, depending on the period in which we can bring in a contractor to start construction of the new railway body“, he says for CAPITAL the director of Railways of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Enis Džafić, who could not answer the question whether this process can be accelerated.
Džafić says that, due to the company’s good performance, they have secured salaries for the next six months for all 2,700 employees.
Instead of Ploče, the coal arrives in Romanian Constanta
According to GIKIL, a month is the maximum they can withstand at minimum work and in this mode of transporting coal. They add that they need four days, and much more money, to transport as much coal as is transported by rail daily from Ploče.
The director of GIKIL, Almin Suljić, specifies that the jobs of around 900 workers in this company are at risk, as well as for companies that depend on GIKIL. He adds that this is only the tip of the iceberg, and that if companies lose their jobs, the consequences for the economy could be much greater.
“400 companies that do business with us are tied to us, plus Arcelor Mittal, which gets 90 percent of its coke from GIKIL. We need seriousness and urgency to resolve this. We could hold out for a month, but from what we see on the ground, we don’t believe it will end,” says the interlocutor CAPITAL-a.
GIKIL explains that they will pay the next salary, but that they do not know what will happen after that. They asked the FBiH Government to release them from the contribution until the situation is resolved. They add that the additional cost of logistics will be two million KM by the end of the month, and nine million marks if it lasts until the end of the year.
The only route for coal that has so far arrived from America to the coking plant in Lukavac is the one via the port of Ploče. Now there are more than 100,000 tons of coal being transported by trucks at an insufficient pace. In GIKIL, they announced yesterday that they are at the minimum of the work process.
“What we transport by rail in one day, which is about 240 tons, we have now managed to transport with 115 trucks engaged in four days. We can transport approximately 700 tons. Our stocks are constantly falling”, says the director of GIKIL.
One cargo ship, which was at sea, was transferred to the port of Bar, where it will unload 50,000 tons and they expect it to arrive. However, they say, that is not enough. The second ship will be unloaded in the Romanian port of Constanta, which is more than 1,000 kilometers away from Lukavac, and in this case the goods will be transported by barges.
In addition to GIKIL, which is a key partner of Željeznica FBiH, there is also Elektroprivreda Srbije, which also transports coal.
RS railways lose 55,000 KM per day
The Railways of Republika Srpska, which are also suffering losses due to the interruption of railway traffic, also announced earlier.
“The decrease in income on a daily basis from the transportation of goods due to the suspension of transportation due to force majeure and the enormous damage caused to ŽFBiH, which directly affects the operations of ŽRS, amounts to more than 55,000 KM”, they stated from Željeznica RS.
If the railway is not ready soon, the monthly loss of “Zeljeznica” will amount to 1,650,000 KM, which is not insignificant if you take into account that this company is in a huge loss even without it.
Alumina, for now, has no consequences
Alumina Zvornik, at least for now, has no consequences, because it does not import bauxite from abroad but buys it on the domestic market, and part of it from Nikšić. Even though they are hurting us right now, they say that doesn’t mean they won’t have delivery to or from the port.
“We will drive her in a truck. From time to time, we transport alumina or hydrate composition to Ploče, which goes to our customers by ship, but we loaded the ship in the second half of September, and I don’t think a single ship will go until the end of the year.” he said for CAPITAL director of “Alumina” Zoran Stevanović.
ArcelorMittal has not announced anything about the rail traffic crisis. Given that their coking plant has stopped working, it is assumed that this company will not directly suffer major consequences, but that it could suffer indirectly.
From the FBiH Chamber of Commerce for CAPITAL they say that they are in the phase of collecting data on the damage caused. They hope to have specific figures next week, and until then they remind businessmen to report the estimated damage.
We remind you that due to the floods and landslides that hit BiH last week, there was damage to the railway and railway facilities on the Ostrožac-Grabovica section near Jablanica in a length of 17 kilometers, as a result of which all passenger and freight traffic on the Sarajevo-Ploče railway was suspended.
CAPITAL: AT Ružić
Source: capital.ba
