FIRST TRAIN FROM SARAJEVO ARRIVES IN PLOCE

PLOCE, July 30 (Hina) - The arrival of a passenger train with 250 passengers from Sarajevo through Mostar to the train station in Ploce marked the re-establishment of traffic on the Sarajevo- Mostar-Ploce railway on Tuesday at 16.00 hours. #L# Welcoming the train were Croatian Maritime Affairs, Transport and Communications Minister Zeljko Luzavec, General Manager of the Croatian Railways Marijan Klaric, Bosnian Foreign Minister Jadranko Prlic, Dubrovnik County prefect Jure Buric, Bosnian Ambassador to Croatia Kasim Trnka, town leaders and many residents of Ploce. Luzavec said that the re-establishment of the traffic on this railway which, together with the port of Ploce opened doors of Bosnian economy to the world, had great political and strategic meaning in the establishment of the Bosnian Federation, its economy and overall connections with Croatia. "Today, we have analyzed the possibilities of this railway, which absolutely exceed 7 million tons of goods a year," Luzavec said. The traffic on the Sarajevo-Mostar-Ploce railway, which was used before the war to transport more than 4 million tons of goods a year, was halted during the Serb aggression on Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, when bridges Neretva I and II, near Mostar, were blown up, and the contact network, telecommunication and safety systems were damaged. (hina) lm 302007 MET jul 96