The Pristina- Hani Highway of Elez ready at the end of 2018, will have two tunnels

The Pristina highway é Hani of Elez, beginning in July 2014, will be on display in late 2018. This highway is designed to have easier access to the Pristina road service, Skopje, as the final goal.

Ella Ruci, spokeswoman for the Turkish-American consortium “Bechtel- Enka”, the winning company for construction of this road, says work on this highway is being developed according to the previous dynamics in the contract.

The “The jobs are running according to a default program with the Ministry of Infrastructure, with which we agreed that the final opening ceremony, that is, completion of the works, will be in the end of 2018”.

This is a huge commitment made by our company. It's a commitment that feels all over the staff. We are working intensively to keep this obligation we have received in relation to the citizen and government of Kosovo”, Ruci says.

The Pristina highway é Hani of Elez linking Kosovo with Macedonia totals about 600m euros and is being built in a completely new, 55km-long container.

It will have two tunnels, while the longest will be the Kachanik, which will be two miles [2.2 km].

Ruci says the ground in building this highway is very challenging and difficult.

The “is an area that Kosovo citizens and what comes from Macedonia and which have often made that road know how difficult it is with many slides. It is under construction, one of the largest bridges of 2,7 km. Technical challenges are extraordinary. However, we are working intensively so that our work, the final result, will be that wanted by all”, Ruci says.

The Kosovo highways (austrada connecting Kosovo with Albania, completed and highway to Macedonia), aimed at connecting it to other countries in the region, have not reflected a major economic development, however experts may have encouraged this development.

American Economic Ode Executive Director in Kosovo Arian Zeka in a proposal for Radio Free Europe says building highways should be forwarded with specific measures in the area of economic development.

The one of the most concrete benefits is that Kosovo will become part of European and hence international road networks, and that will put Kosovo on the global map with a developed road infrastructure”.

However, what the country needs to have the biggest focus is economic acquisitions, and here it has to work on promoting Kosovo exports, so that the highways not only serve for human trafficking but also for the circulation of goods from Kosovo to other countries, which has been the primary goal when building highways” begins, Zeka says.

Trade exchanges among states linking these highways, according to official data from the Statistics Agency have never been in favour of Kosovo.

Trade deficit continues to be high in Kosovo.

Official data shows that the value of imports from Albania in the past year amounts to over 100m euros, while the value of Kosovo products exported to Albania is about 42m euros.

Meanwhile, import of goods from Macedonia to Kosovo last year has been over 150m euros, while exports from Kosovo to Macedonia has been over 35m euros.