PODGORICA (Montenegro), May 11 (SeeNews) – Montenegro said on Tuesday it accepted the offer of Greek-Israeli tie-in Aktor/HCH to build 63.5 kilometres of a key motorway for 1.575 billion euro ($2.0 billion).
The offer, approved by the government’s Council for Motorway Construction, refers to the construction of three sections of the planned north-to-south Bar-Boljare motorway, Transport Minister Adrija Lompar told a news conference after the end of the council’s session. An audiotape with his remarks is uploaded on the government’s website.
In March, Montenego cancelled a 2.77 billion euro concession deal with a group of Croatian firms led by Konstruktor and decided to invite for talks the second-ranked bidder in the tender, Aktor/HCH.
The deal for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the 169-kilometre motorway linking Montenegro's Adriatic port of Bar with the Serbian border town of Boljare was initially signed with the Konstruktor consortium in June 2009. Yet, the top bidder failed to submit valid bank guarantees for its part of the financing within the specified deadline.
The Greek-Israeli consortium offered to build the Bar-Boljare motorway for 3.92 billion euro.
The Bar-Boljare section will become part of the longer Bar-Belgrade motorway, a project linking Montenegro with EU-defined transport Corridor X via the Serbian capital.
In March 2009, Montenegro said it had received three offers for the construction of the whole motorway - from Austria's Strabag, Konstruktor and Aktor/HCH, while Austria's Porr-Alpine consortium had filed a bid for the construction of part of the motorway - from Podgorica to Matesevo.
($=0.7875 euro)