June 7 (SeeNews) - Serbia's government plans to start operating the two motorway sections, part of Pan-European Corridor XI, built by China's Shandong Hi-Speed Group (SDHS), by the end of 2017, infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic has said.
The government plans to put into operation stretches on Corridors X and XI with a total length of 80 km this year, Mihajlovic said in a video file posted on the website of Serbia's infrastructure ministry on Tuesday.
In 2013, Serbia hired Shandong Hi-Speed Group to build the Obrenovac-Ub and Lajkovac-Ljig sections of Corridor XI motorway, with a combined length of 50.2 km. The works were financed with the proceeds of a $334 million (296.5 million euro) loan from the Export-Import Bank of China.
However, the government will be unable to put into operation all road sections of Corridor X in Serbia in 2017 and is ready to terminate the contracts awarded to some companies by the end of the construction season due to delays in construction works, Mihajlovic said.
The most serious problems faced by Koridori Srbije, a company set-up by the Serbian government to manage works along Corridors X and XI, are related to the construction of the Bancarevo-Crvena reka section and of the tunnels in the southern part of Corridor X in Serbia, the director of the firm, Zoran Babic, said in the video file.
The Bancarevo-Crvena reka stretch is being built by a consortium of Greece's Aktor and Italy Terna and the deadline for the completion of the project is November 30, 2017, data from the corporate website of Koridori Srbije shows.
In April, Zorana Mihajlovic said the government planned to discuss the inclusion of more companies in the construction of Corridor X, as Aktor did not have enough workers to complete the project by the end of 2017 as planned.
Corridor X will connect Salzburg in Austria to the Greek port of Thessaloniki, passing through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia. In Serbia, the project includes the construction of Belgrade bypass motorway, as well as two separate sections, linking Nis to Merdare and to the border with Bulgaria.
Corridor XI is a ferry/motorway corridor linking Italy's Bari to Romania's Bucharest via Montenegro's Bar port and Serbia's Belgrade.