21.03.2011.

Minister Sutanovac and the representatives of the Serbian Government visit Brodarevo and Prijepolje

Deputy Prime Minister Verica Kalanovic, Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac, Minister of Economy and Regional Development Nebojsa Ciric and the Serbian Armed Forces Chief of General Miloje Miletic visited today the Serbian Army units involved in the maintenance of the pontoon bridge in the village of Brodarevo near Prijepolje.

Recalling that members of the SAF have helped the vulnerable local population and in other parts of the country struck by natural disasters, Sutanovac said that they had put up a pontoon bridge thus linking several villages to the nearby town of Prijepolje.

According to him, the members of the SAF have been engaged on the maintenance of the pontoon bridge for three months now and would be there for as long as necessary, or until a new bridge is constructed. Although the military is going to cover some costs, which are not negligible, though, that, according to the minister, is of little matter in comparison with the importance of establishing close relationship between the military and the local citizens.

The Minister recalled that the Army was still undergoing the process of professionalization with now only professional members of the Sabac pontoon battalion being deployed on maintaining the bridge. Furthermore, he took this opportunity to urge the local people to sign up for professional service in the Army of Serbia.

Deputy Prime Minister Verica Kalanovic said that today's visit of the representatives of the Serbian Government demonstrates that this place had not been forgotten, adding that they all demonstrated today that SAF could set up a pontoon bridge as a temporary solution enabling people and vehicles to cross the Lim thus restoring a normal life to Prijepolje.

Ms. Kalanovic announced that the project for constructing a new bridge over the Lim would be completed by the end of March while the bridge would be operation by the end of the year.

The minister of Economy and Regional Development Nebojsa Ciric said that in addition to get an insight into the construction of the bridge, the aim of the present visit of representatives of the government is to fully understand the economic situation of the region.

Navy Captain Nebojsa Joksimovic presented the delegation of the Government the capacities and technical characteristics of the bridge, pointing out that the fifteen members of the pontoon battalion were continuously secure the bridge, monitoring water levels and regulating traffic.

During the visit to Prijepolje, Deputy Prime Minister Verica Kalanovic, and ministers Sutanovac and Cirici talked with the president of the municipality Dragoljub Vidakovic about providing relief to and tackling the consequences of floods as well as current projects for the development of the town.

The members of River flotilla pontoon battalion set up on 17 December last year a pontoon, which is 65 m long and 7 m wide, thus enabling the populations of a dozen villages under the mountain of Jadovnik on the right bank of the Lima to be connected to the main roads towards Prijepolje and Bijelo Polje. The bridge was set up fifteen days after the damage done by the swollen Lim which caused unprecedented floods in this part of Serbia. The work lasted several hours and were carried out in very cold weather and a snow blizzard.

The pontoon bridge has enabled the local population to cross the Lim River in the same place where the previous bridge once stood, built thirty years ago. The villagers, before the intervention of the Serbian Army engineers, had to travel 12 kilometers by train to the village of Lucica to cross Lim, which was most time-consuming for the students who go the Prijepolje high school.