The Minister of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure, Liburn Aliu, has said that the Pristina-Durres railway will turn Kosovo into a major transit country.
In an interview for "KosovaPress", Aliu told about the benefits that Kosovo will have from this project, while he also talked about the road Pristina - Podujevë and the road to Pejë.
"Kosova through the Durrës-Prishtina line becomes part of a regional network, currently it is outside the corridors. So, all the transport of goods for the entire region, either to the ports, or from the ports to the region, can be done through Kosovo. This transforms Kosovo into a main transit country and a step or a distribution point for goods, this creates opportunities for economic development and the creation of economic zones around this area of distribution of goods. The two ports, Durrës and Tivari, which are connected, will now be connected by rail between themselves, they will be connected to Pristina, and from Pristina with the railway line Pristina-Skopje, or Pristina-Nish-Sofje, or Pristina-Leshak-Mitrovica -Salzburg, the whole region is connected through these", says Aliu.
Minister Aliu says that they are working to complete the issue of feasibility in order to realize the project for the Prishtina-Durres railway as soon as possible.
"As soon as the issue of feasibility is finished, which we hope will be finished earlier, because the options are already on the table, we expect to have interest in financing, we already have it from the British, the Germans, and others who have already moved these mechanisms, which for me is a good surprise. I did not expect that there could be an increase in interest so quickly. So, if three years ago there was no talk at all about this work, now it has become the topic of every panel, the railway connection of Pristina with Durrës with the whole region. It is not the question of finances that we as the minister will postpone, we will deal with the feasibility and the project to have it realized as soon as possible", adds Aliu.
Meanwhile, it also tells about the infrastructure projects that are being carried out at the country level, that for Llap, Dukagjin and Lugina.
"On the waters, that is, on the one hand, the connection through the corridors is vital for Kosovo to completely change the economic face of the country, which is going quite well, and with the highways it is going well. So, we will soon start the highway to Bujanoc that connects us to the Dheu corridor, the road to Podujeva is going well, the road to Peja is also going well. This will create opportunities for us to be connected and for Kosovo to become a transit country, the same with railways, but the main one is water. Kosovo has very little water, we managed to successfully make five feasibility plans, two of them are in the project, design phase, we will start with the expropriation projects for them, the realization will begin and these first five projects, should be accompanied very quickly by five other feasibilities that we think of doing next year. In the project with the World Bank, we have the complete map, the master plan of the dams for our country, that we must be very careful about the use of the water resources we have, because Kosovo has very limited water resources, we have very little water". he says.
Meanwhile, he emphasizes that they are working to manage the water caused by floods, for which he says, that in this way the situation of droughts, which inevitably awaits Kosovo, will be overcome.
"Climate change will endanger us, and it is already endangering us, we will have floods on one side as we have, and they will increase, and on the other side we will have droughts. So, we will not have drinking water and water for land irrigation, while we will have floods, therefore the management of flood water, the collection of that water, and the construction of the irrigation system that would also serve for agriculture, but also for drinking water, we will be able to manage the floods on the one hand, and overcome the drought situation on the other hand, which inevitably awaits Kosovo, because we are part of the Mediterranean", concludes Aliu.
On the other hand, the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, during his stay in Kosovo, said that work is being done on the Prishtina-Durra railway project for the best options. Meanwhile, he added that they are waiting for the feasibility study.
