Bechtel eyes Montenegro's Bar-Boljare motorway project - ministry

Representatives of Bechtel have shown interest in the Bar-Boljare motorway project, the construction of a motorway along the Montenegrin coast, and the reconstruction of the Bar-Vrbnica railway line during a meeting with Montenegrin transport minister Osman Nurkovic in London, the transport ministry said in a statement.

In the framework of International Road Safety Conference held in London, Nurkovic also met with representatives of UK-based companies WYG, Roughton International, IMC Worldwide Limited, Beckett Rankine and Strategy International, which also expressed interest in providing consultancy services on the Bar-Boljare motorway project, the ministry said.

The Bar-Boljare motorway would linking the Montenegrin port of Bar to the country's border with Serbia. It is part of European transport Corridor XI, a ferry/motorway corridor linking Italy's Bari to Romania's Bucharest via the port of Bar and Serbia's Belgrade.

Nurkovic said in July that Montenegro's expenditures for the construction of the Smokovac-Matesevo section of the motorway will stand at 895 million euro ($1 billion).

Earlier this year, China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) said it plans to complete the construction of the 41 km Smokovac-Metesevo section by the middle of 2020. The motorway, whose length on Montenegrin territory is 129 km, has three more projected sections in the country -- Matesevo-Andrijevica, Andrijevica-Boljare and Podgorica-Djurmani.