May 12 (SeeNews) - China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) plans to complete the construction of the first stretch of the Bar-Boljare motorway in Montenegro on May 11, 2019, in line with the agreed schedule, the chief engineer of the project, Vlatko Cipranic, has said.
The company is satisfied with the pace of works and everything proceeds according to plan, Cipranic said in a video file posted on the website of Montenegrin public broadcaster Radio Televizija Crne Gore (RTCG) on Thursday.
CRBC is currently building the Moracica bridge as well as tunnels along the 41 km-long Moracica-Smokicevo section, which are of great importance for the entire project, Cipranic added.
The Montenegrin government will issue 16 building permits for the project in the next ten days, while the remaining three will be issued by the middle of July, transport minister Osman Nurkovic said in the video file.
In February, CRBC said it plans to invest 194.3 million euro ($211.1 million) into the construction of the Bar-Boljare motorway in 2017.
The Montenegrin government intends to invest a total of 809 million euro in the construction of the 165 km-long motorway. The Export-Import Bank of China has extended a $944 million loan to Montenegro, with an interest rate of 2% and a six-year grace period, towards the cost of the project.
The Bar-Boljare motorway is part of pan-European Corridor XI, a ferry/motorway corridor linking Italy's Bari to Romania's Bucharest via Montenegro's Bar port and Serbia's Belgrade.
($ = 0.920566 euro)