Sarajevo and Dubrovnik are expected to be connected soon by a 350-kilometre-long bike route that will pass through the most beautiful scenery of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and southern Croatia, creating a new tourism potential in both countries, BiH media reported on Monday.

The initiative was launched by the HercegovinaBike association and the Visit Konjic organisation, with support announced by the EU Delegation in Bosnia and Herzegovina through access to funds provided by the European Union.

The development of this cycling route from the BiH capital towards Herzegovina and further to the southern Croatian city of Dubrovnik is planned to be carried out within the broader project “EU for Local Communities,” funded by the European Union and implemented by the Centre for the Promotion of Civil Society (CPCD) from Bosnia and Herzegovina, in partnership with the HELP association.

The head of the HercegovinaBike association, Toni Zoric, said that the plan is to develop bicycle paths that would run from Sarajevo, passing over Mount Bjelasnica to Boracko Lake above Konjic, and then over Mount Rujiste to Mostar. From the largest city in Herzegovina, the route would follow the existing ‘Ciro's Path,’ which once served as the narrow-gauge railway line to Dubrovnik, covering a distance of 140 kilometres.

This is just part of a long-term project aimed at connecting all the bike routes across Bosnia and Herzegovina, to make the country a part of Eurovelo, a network of long-distance cycle routes connecting and uniting the whole European continent.