Infrastructure

Transport and communication

Road traffic

More than 90% of the overall amount of goods is transported by road traffic.

Road network in the Republic of Srpska is consisted of:

106 km of highways
over 4200 freeways and regional roads
over 6000 local roads

By adopted strategic and planned documents of the Republic of Srpska, besides the already built highway Banja Luka- Gradiška and Banja Luka-Doboj, there is the plan for building highways in the following directions:

Vukosavlje-Bijeljina- border with the Republic of Serbia (Rača), length 68 km,
Doboj-Vukosavlje ( highway on the corridor Vc), length 46,6 km
Banja Luka-Novi Grad, length 71 km and
Glamočani-Mrkonjić Grad-Mlinište- border with Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, length
93 km.
By adopted strategic and planned documents of the Republic of Srpska, the following fast-track roads are planned to be built in the Republic of Srpska:
Lukavica – Pale – Sokolac – Rogatica – Ustiprača – border with the Republic of Serbia (SEETO, Route 3),
Bijeljina – Zvornik – Sokolac,
Trebinje – Gacko – Foča – Ustiprača – Višegrad,
Prijedor – Kozarska Dubica – Donja Gradina,
Banja Luka – Čelinac – Kotor Varoš – Obodnik.

By adopted strategic and planned documents of the Republic of Srpska, the following freeways and regional roads are planned to be built in the Republic of Srpska:

Building of the freeway MI 111 Brod na Drini (Foča) – Hum (Šćepan Polje) (Route 2b)
Building of the freeway MI 109 Brod na Drini (Foča) – Tjentište (new route),
Building of the freeway MII 502 Bronzani Majdan – entity border,
Building of the regional road RI 6102 Nevesinje – Berkovići,
Building of the regional road RI 1104 Gornji Podgradci – Mrakovica.

Railway traffic

“Railways of the Republic of Srpska”, joint-stock company Doboj, is the only railway company on the territory of the Republic of Srpska, whose main activity is to transport goods and passengers. The Republic of Srpska has around 425 km of railway network and around 385 km is being used. 90% of the railway is electrified at 25Kv. “Railways of the Republic of Srpska” transport around 170. 000 passengers annually and around five million tons of goods.

“Railways of the Republic of Srpska” in cooperation with the Government of the Republic of Srpska and the World Bank are currently restructuring this company, in order for it to achieve financial stability and take its place in the network of European railways.

Restructuring deals with ownership, organization and financial issues as well as the investment plan for the next ten years.

“Railways of the Republic of Srpska” needs investments in infrastructure and procurement of towing vehicles, as well as electrical and diesel motor vehicles for passengers in order to improve the quality of service.

When it comes to the repair of the railways in the direction BanjaLuka – Novi Grad – border of the Republic of Croatia, negotiations with Chinese companies are in progress.

The direction Doboj (Srpska Kostajnica) – Šamac is set to be repaired soon. It is estimated that the cost will be around 140 million euros. A significant amount of money will come from grants (up to 50%).

The direction (Doboj) Tuzla – Zvornik – border of the Republic of Serbia, where the tunnel Križevići is located, is electrified and it demands repair. Research project are to be obtained regarding this from IPA 2017.

Ports

Apart from the port in Šamac, which is capable of accepting the ships which carry up to 1500 tons of cargo and transshipment of cargo, there is Brod Refinery, open for docking and transshipment of petrol and petrol products. The docks in Gradiška and Rača are in plan to be built.

Airports

The Banja Luka airport is the only airport in the Republic of Srpska open for international traffic.

Since 2013 there has been the regular flight of “Air Serbia” Belgrade – Banja Luka – Belgrade.

Since the winter flight timetable in 2018, “Ryanair” flights to Brussels, Memmingen and Stockholm have been established. The flights take place twice a week to all three destinations.

In April 2019, the “Ryanair” company established the flight Banja Luka – Berlin – Banja Luka, twice a week. This company expects that these four regular flights will provide transport for more than 135 000 of passengers over the airport in Banja Luka.

During the summer in 2018, charter flights to Antalya were provided, and in summer 2019 this company started with charter flights to Greece.

Furthermore, the negotiations regarding establishing the direct flights Banja Luka – Moscow and Banja Luka – Vienna are in progress.

The airport in Banja Luka has a great geographical position in Bosnia and Herzegovina, great flying weather conditions in summer and winter and it is the only airport in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the possibility of landing from both directions. The airport area stretches on 1.600.000,00 m²

The airport has a runaway which is 2600 h and 45 m in length as well as other lanes and platforms. The landing building has been reconstructed with amenities necessary for arrivals and departures of passengers of international flights.

The building of a modern cargo object is in progress which stretches on 1360 m² which will be accompanied by modern cutting edge equipment which will provide fast and safe shipping of all kinds of goods which can be transported by plane. The services which the airport provides are the following: arrivals and departures of planes, passengers and luggage; arrivals and departures of goods and their storage; sale of jet fuel – JET A1; services of VIP lounge, catering services; trade services; parking for 100 cars.

The airport can accept and cater the medium category planes. The distance of the airport Banja Luka is 23 km from the town Banja Luka, 35 km from the highway Belgrade – Zagreb, 18 km from the river Sava, 18 km from railway, 1 km from the highway Banja Luka – Gradiška and 1 km from main freeway.

The long term plan for this airport is to become the cargo leader in the region.

Telecommunication

Landline phone service

“Telecom Srpske” is the main provider of landline phone service in the Republic of Srpska, functioning as a very strong operator. However, there are other operators on the market as well. The overall number of landline phone subscribers on the “m:tel” network is 227. 251 ending with 31. 12. 2018.

Mobile phone service

There are three main operators in the Republic of Srpska which are very strong on the market. Those are: “m:tel”, “BH Telecom” and “Eronet”, as well as other operators.

The overall number of subscribers on the “m:tel” network is 1.321.627, ending with 31. 12. 2018.

The Internet

The overall number of the internet users in the Republic of Srpska was 143.001, which is for 6,7% more compared to the previous year. Package users of the integrated services have the most significant role in the internet users´ overall structure which is 67,4%. The overall number of the integrated services users is 109.543, which is for 12,8% more than in the previous year.

Postal service

Postal services in the Republic of Srpska are provided by “Posts of Srpska”, as the public post operator (JPO) of the Republic of Srpska and other postal operators.

“Posts of Srpska” as the public post operator in the Republic of Srpska is the fully-fledged member of the World Postal Union and the Post of Europe, with the international IMPC code for providing services in the international traffic. When it comes to fulfilling international duties in terms of continuity and availability of postal services, only JPO is currently capable of providing universal postal service (UPU) on the whole territory of the Republic of Srpska.

“Posts of Srpske” provide their services in 225 post offices. 189 post offices are delivery posts. The average number of residents per one post office is 5.447. The number of delivery regions is 1.083, the average number of residents per one delivery region is 1.132. On the other hand, private postal operators provide their services mostly in urban areas focusing on major users.