The upper chamber of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has passed the Bosnia and Herzegovina-Croatia Southern Interconnection Act, which will enable the construction of a new gas pipeline to connect the two countries and secure stable gas supply.

The law was previously adopted by the lower chamber of the parliament of the Croat-Bosniak Federation entity.

BH Gas, which is in charge of implementing the project together with Croatia’s Plinacro company, said the law among other things defines the construction of infrastructure, the location of the interconnection, investors, the model of financing, the use of land, administrative procedures related to the issuing of permits and the role of cantonal governments, ministries and other bodies of state administration as well as companies involved in the project.

Plinacro and BH Gas officials signed a statement on the point of connection in Mostar on Thursday, which will be located at Imotski.

The project envisages the construction of a new gas pipeline through Bosnia and Herzegovina running towards Sarajevo, with a section branching off to Mostar.

The pipeline will be 168.54 kilometres long and the section running towards Mostar is 53 kilometres long.

The project is worth €100 million, of which around 20 million comes from the EU’s fund for the Western Balkans. Work on the project is expected to start in 2023 and the pipeline should be put into operation by the end of 2024.