Damage to infrastructure at around EUR 260 mln

OBRENOVAC - The flood-caused damage to the energy, telecommunications, railway and road infrastructures amounts to around EUR 260 million, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Zorana Mihajlovic said on Sunday, adding that all state roads will be rebuilt by October.

"We will work on roads first so that Serbia can solve those problems as early as October. The damage to Category I and Category II roads, as well as local roads, amounts to around EUR 40 million," Mihajlovic told Tanjug during a visit to Obrenovac with World Bank officials.

The estimated damage in local self-government units that have submitted their reports is at around EUR 200 million, Mihajlovic said.
"We still have not received the reports from all local self-governments. Understandably, we still cannot obtain that information from Obrenovac," she said.

A difficult period is ahead for us, but the government, alongside international organisations and the EU, will do everything to find a way out of those problems, she said.

We will find funds to rebuild houses by the autumn and ensure that life gets back to normal, not only in Obrenovac, but in other flood-hit cities as well, Mihajlovic said, adding that final damage assessments are a prerequisite for this.

The money for repairing the damage will come from the EU Solidarity Fund, loans provided by the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), but also from unused IPA funds, she said.

World Bank Vice President Laura Tuck expressed condolences in Obrenovac to all those who lost their loved ones or property in the catastrophic floods, adding that the World Bank has already donated USD 150,000 for urgent repairs.

She also said that the bank has...