After the project was drawn and the tender was given to the construction companies "Gjikuria" and "Arti", work has started. The excavators digging in both sides to increase it from a national road to a 2 lane highway can be seen at the starting point called "Kanali i Cukes". The highway is planned to be ready for summer 2010. Butrint is located 14 kilometres south of Saranda.
To go for a visit in the antic city of Butrint from Saranda in southern Albania, the journey is an absolute nightmare, the road was built in 1959 for a visit by the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and it hasn’t been touched again since.
Butrint it is increasingly becoming a popular tourist destination, attracting day-trippers from the nearby Greek holiday island of Corfu. Hydrofoils (30 minutes) and ferries (90 minutes) run daily between the New Port in Corfu Town and Saranda. Many visitors from Corfu use chartered coach services to visit Butrint from Saranda, which are often included in tickets to Albania from Corfu, and additionally, a regular public bus service runs between Saranda port and Butrint.
The road is a national road 14 kilometres long with one lane in each side which goes through the hills in a very picturesque area with rivers, lakes, lagoons and forests.
The area is in the top 5 most visited areas in Albania with more then half million visitors every year and now with the new road and easier to be accessed the number of visitors should be doubled by the end of next year.
After the collapse of the communist regime in 1992, the new democratic government planned various major developments at the site. The same year remains of Butrint were included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. A major political and economic crisis in 1997 and lobbying stopped the airport plan and UNESCO reclassified it as a "Site in Danger" because of looting, lack of protection, management and conservation.
The Albanian Government established the Butrint National Park in 2000. With the support of Albanian institutions and UNESCO and under the leadership of Auron Tare the first Director of the Park, the situation was improved to the point that UNESCO removed the site from the danger list by 2005. The National Park was also made a UNESCO World Heritage Site during these years as well as a Ramsar Site.
Butrint may yet provide a model of how local communities in developing countries can be empowered through the sustainable exploitation of cultural heritage. The Park Directorate ensured that the Park was able to establish an international position. In 2005 the Butrint National Park reopened the Museum which had been destroyed in 1997. The Butrint National Park has become an important educational resource. (Reporting for Albanian Times – Erind Kurti)
Bukur!
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