EBRD lending 85 mln euro for motorway construction in Serbia

The loan will finance the construction of a 39-km section between the cities of Nis and Plocnik in the south of Serbia, with a tender for the works expected to be launched in December, the EBRD said in a statement on Wednesday.

People and businesses in Serbia’s less developed south will benefit from the new road, which will enable quicker and safer journeys, while the improved infrastructure links are also expected to create more economic opportunities, the bank noted.

"Following our successful cooperation with the Serbian authorities on transport projects including Corridor X, the Belgrade Airport concession and Serbian Railways we are pleased that we can now contribute to the construction of this new highway in the south of the country. It is an investment to develop the common regional market in the Western Balkans and facilitate trade and the movement of people," the EBRD Regional Director for the Western Balkans, Zsuzsanna Hargitai, said in the statement.

The motorway, named "Peace Highway", will link Nis to Albania's capital Tirana through Pristina and will end in Durres, on the Adriatic Sea. The road has been classified as an extension of the Trans-European Transport Network and is a part of Route 7 of the Western Balkans core network.

The construction of the "Peace Highway" in Serbia is co-financed with a 100 million euro loan by the European Investment Bank (EIB), while the European Union is providing a 40.6 million euro investment grant as well as funding for project preparation through the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF).

($ = 0.838877 euro)