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September 20 (SeeNews) - Montenegros transport minister Maja Vukicevic said the government expects to hire by the end of 2024 a contractor to build the planned Matesevo-Andrijevica section of a motorway that will connect the Adriatic port of Bar to the border with Serbia at Boljare, local media reported on Friday."The pre-qualification tender for the second phase of the motorway was opened in April and completed in June, under the rules of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and we expect to have a signed contract with the selected contractor by the end of the year," Pobjeda daily quoted Vukicevic as saying in an interview.
The Bar-Boljare motorway is part of European transport Corridor XI, a ferry/motorway route connecting Italys Bari to Romanias Bucharest via the Adriatic port of Bar and Serbias Belgrade.
Vukicevic recalled that five companies and three consortia have expressed interest in building the 22-kilometre Matesevo-Andrijevica motorway section, adding the names of the interested bidders will be disclosed once the selection procedure is completed. The main project design will be drawn next year when preparatory works on the section are expected to start. The construction is expected to take four years to complete.
Earlier in September, the Montenegrin government said it has applied for 144 million euro ($161 million) in financing from the EUs Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF) to support the construction of the Matesevo-Andrijevica section, whose overall cost is estimated at 604.6 million euro.
Montenegro plans to provide 153 million euro of the total from its own funds, while the EBRD is providing a 200 million euro loan, and the European Commission has committed 100 million euro in grant funding, with an option to approve a second tranche of an additional 100 million euro.
Matesevo-Andrijevica will be the second section of the Bar-Boljare motorway. The first one - the 41 km Smokovac-Matesevo stretch, which was built by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) - was opened for traffic in July 2022. In January, the government opened a tender for the preparation of a preliminary design for the construction of the third section - the 50-km Andrijevica-Boljare stretch.
($ = 0.896 euro) |
