BELGRADE (Serbia), March 28 (SeeNews) – China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) plans to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Serbia for the construction of a section of Corridor XI, connecting Pozega to Boljare, on the Montenegrin border, Serbia's infrastructure ministry said.
"We expect the signing of a MoU for the construction of the Corridor XI section from Pozega to Boljare, since we also agreed with Montenegrin officials to take part in the construction of the highway to Serbia, with a length of 78 km," the president of CRBC, Du Fei, said, as quoted in a statement by the Serbian infrastructure ministry on Tuesday.
CRBC is already active in the construction of the Surcin-Obrenovac road and is ready to take part in new infrastructure projects in Serbia, Du Fei said during a meeting with Serbian infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic in Belgrade.
The Serbian government plans to start this year the construction of a 30.9 km-long motorway stretch linking Pozega to Preljina, in central Serbia, Mihajlovic said.
The motorway is planned to link Serbia's capital Belgrade to the Montenegrin port of Bar through Boljare, a small town on the Serbian side of the border. Last year, Montenegro said it plans to invest a total of 809 million euro in the construction of the 165 km Bar-Boljare stretch. The Export-Import Bank of China has extended a $944 million ($761.3 million) loan to Montenegro with an interest rate of 2% and a six-year grace period towards the cost of the project.
The construction of the motorway in Montenegro started in May 2015. The Smokovac-Matesevo section is considered a priority by the Montenegrin government, due to the complexity of the works, and is expected to be completed in 2019.
The Bar-Boljare motorway is part of pan-European Corridor XI, a ferry/motorway corridor linking Italy's Bari to Romania's Bucharest via Montenegro's Bar port and Serbia's Belgrade.
($ = 0.8064 euro)