Bosnia To Call Tenders for Construction of Key Motorway Sections

The total value of the project is 480 million euro ($654 million). The EBRD is expected to approve 180 million euro in loan financing for the project this month. The European Investment Bank is also considering extending funds for the project.

“The proposed project will require the procurement of works …[and] may include consultancy services for design, site supervision and implementation assistance as well as advisory services for institutional strengthening and development of public private partnership,” the EBRD said in a procurement notice.

Prequalification is expected to start during the current quarter of 2008, it said.

The motorway will run along the Bosnian section of the EU-defined Corridor Vc which links the Hungarian capital Budapest with the Croatian Adriatic port of Ploce. The stretches covered by the project include Zenica to Kakanj (15.2 kilometres), Vlakovo to Tarcin (18.9 km), Pocitelj to the southern border with Croatia (21.4 km) and Odzak to the northern border with Croatia (10.9 km).

The closing date as set by the procurement notice is October 13, 2009.

Building a motorway along the Bosnian section of corridor Vc is Bosnia’s biggest post-war infrastructure project, for which the country is still seeking adequate financing. A government feasibility study has shown the motorway will cost 7.39 billion marka ($5.17 billion/3.78 billion euro) and will need to be financed from the state budget and through public-private partnerships, commercial lending and the international financial institutions. The motorway’s length is expected to be around 340 kilometres.

The EBRD has invested over 760 million euro in 71 projects in Bosnia. In 2008, around 59 million euro of new commitments have been signed, with the amount expected to swell to over 200 million euro until the end of the year.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bosnian marka)