April 19 (SeeNews) - Montenegro's Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism has issued a permit to China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) for the construction of the Vezesnik tunnel on the Bar-Boljare motorway.
The tunnel is located on the territory of Rogami, Djurkovici and Mrke municipalities and is part of the Smokovac-Matesevo section of the motorway, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
The 2.4-kilometre tunnel will have two tubes.
Last month, Montenegro's prime minister Dusko Markovic said the bulk of building permits for the main sections of the Bar-Boljare motorway will be issued by the end of March.
In February, CRBC said it plans to invest 194.3 million euro ($208.2 million) into the construction of the Bar-Boljare motorway in Montenegro in 2017.
The Montenegrin government intends to invest a total of 809 million euro in the construction of the 165 km-long Bar-Boljare motorway. The Export-Import Bank of China has extended a $944 million loan to Montenegro, with an interest rate of 2% and a six-year grace period, for the implementation of the project.
Bar-Boljare motorway is part of pan-European Corridor XI, a ferry/motorway corridor linking Italy's Bari to Romania's Bucharest via Montenegro's Bar port and Serbia's Belgrade.
($ = 0.93322 euro)