High-speed road to connect Sombor and Kikinda, Hungarian and Romanian borders – Two options for linking Banat and Backa

Backa and Banat should be connected by a high-speed route, which would also connect Serbia's border crossings with Hungary and Romania. This is a state road that would be the shortest link between Sombor and Kikinda, while passing through the districts of West Backa, South Backa, Central Banat and North Banat.

This is the route preferred by representatives of Kula, Odzaci, Apatin, Vrbas and Sombor. At a recent meeting in Kula, which was also attended by the head of the West Backa District, Dusan Marijan, and the assistant to the provincial secretary for urban planning, Svetlana Kilibarda, they discussed the preliminary project for this traffic route. Its construction was hinted at by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on June 29 during his visit to the West Backa District. He said that this road from Backi Breg would pass through Sombor, Kula and Vrbas and then through the municipalities of Srbobran, Becej and Novi Becej, to Kikinda and the Romanian border.

– That is the slightly more expensive option, which would cost 420 to 430 million euros. There's also the cheaper option, to reconstruct the existing Vrbas-Kula-Sombor road, and for a high-speed route to be built between Backa Topola and Kikinda, which would be shorter and less expensive, but which would also connect fewer populated places. One of these options will be selected in line with your interests – Vucic told the residents of the West Backa District.

Marijan told Novosti that the first option was much better, as it would connect more local self-governments and industrial zones, considering the interest of the investors.

– The new road would connect Backa and Banat directly and a trip between Sombor and Kikinda would take under an hour, and now it takes more than two hours. The high-speed route would also open a new border crossing to Hungary, through Baja – Marijan pointed out.

He explained that the route would have four lanes, two in each direction, and it would be outside the existing first-category road Vrbas-Kula-Crvenka-Sivac-Kljajicevo-Sombor. The bypass route, Marijan emphasized, would still pass close to these places.

The president of the Municipality of Vrbas, Milan Glusac, pointed out that the bypass route would considerably unload the roads in these places from heavy vehicle traffic close to the border.

Marijan said that they had been insisting on the construction of the high-speed road since 2017.

– The preliminary project would be sent to the PE Roads of Serbia and the Institute of Urban Planning of Vojvodina, which will determine the most profitable route for the bypass road – Marijan said.

An earlier project, advocated by local self-governments, entailed a bypass route to Bogojevo and Erdut on the Croatian border.

– That idea was abandoned as traffic through Hungary is cheaper than through Croatia. It's more natural to travel through Budapest to Austria and Hungary, and this also opens directions toward the Czech Republic and Slovakia – Marijan emphasized.

JP Putevi Srbije Beograd

JP Zavod za urbanizam Vojvodine Novi Sad

Pokrajinski sekretarijat za urbanizam i zaštitu životne sredine Novi Sad

Opština Vrbas

Roads of Serbia

Municipality of Vrbas

Svetlana Kilibarda

Dušan Marijan

Aleksandar Vučić

Milan Glušac

high speed route between Banat and Backa

high speed route from Sombor to Kikinda

West Backa District

Central Banat District

South Backa District

North Banat Disctrict

road from Bački Breg to Kikinda

construction of roads in Serbia

bypass route from Sombor to Kikinda

bypass route from Hungarian to Romanian border