Connecting or Dividing?

In the early 2000s, the Corridor Vc route south of Mostar was planned to run through the Neretva valley, but due to strong local opposition, in 2011 this was changed to a route on the nearby plateau. In 2015 and 2016, yet another decision was made to return the route down into the valley again, on a somewhat different alignment. The report finds very weak justification for this second, unexplained change, which has the highway run through villages and fertile agricultural land in the valley, as well as twice crossing extremely valuable river ecosystems.

The purpose of this report is to provide additional analysis and recommendations regarding the routing and assessment of the South Mostar sections of Corridor Vc. These recommendations echo the concerns and arguments of local people to a large extent and are complemented by Bankwatch’s additional analysis. They will hopefully inform the decisions of the EBRD, EIB, EU and FBiH decision makers on how to proceed with the project.