BANJA LUKA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), December 13 (SeeNews) – Bosnia's Serb Republic said it has signed a concession contract with China Shandong International Economic and Technical Cooperation Group for the construction and operation of the first section of the future Banja Luka - Prijedor - Novi Grad motorway.
The concession on the first section, 42 km in length from Banja Luka to Prijedor, will be granted for a period of 33 years, including the three-year period of construction works, which was agreed with Shandong in October, the Serb Republic government said in a statement on Wednesday, following the signing ceremony.
Shandong will design, build, manage and maintain the Banja Luka - Prijedor motorway and finance its construction. During the period of operating the motorway, it will pay an annual fee of 32.5 million euro ($36.9 million) to the Serb Republic, the entity government said.
A total of 297 million euro will be invested in designing and building of the motorway.
In October, the Serb Republic said it signed a contract with Shandong for the construction and operation of the Banja Luka - Prijedor - Novi Grad motorway, opening the way for the Chinese company to pay the one-off fee of 4.467 million euro for the concession. The concession contract will be officially signed after the payment of the one-off fee, the Serb Republic government said back then.
The Serb Republic is one of the two autonomous entities forming Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other is the Federation.
($ = 0.879434 euro)