Montenegro to open highway section construction tender Apr 19

The estimated start date of the procurement procedure for the Matesevo-Andrijevica section is April 19, the EBRD said in a statement on Tuesday.

Monteput intends to use part of the proceeds of a 200 million euro ($213 million) loan from/grant administered by the EBRD towards the cost of the project, the bank said. The total value of the Matesevo-Andrijevica project is estimated at 530 million euro.

The ruling party Europe Now (PES) of prime minister Milojko Spajic said last month that Montenegro will receive a 200 million euro grant from the European Commission for the project, which is the largest single grant so far in the country's history. PES has said that the construction of Matesevo-Andrijevica section is expected to start in September.

The Bar-Boljare highway is part of European transport Corridor XI, a ferry/highway corridor linking Italy's Bari to Romania's Bucharest via the port of Bar and Serbia's Belgrade.

The Matesevo-Andrijevica stretch is the second section of the 129-km Bar-Boljare motorway that Montenegro will build. In July 2022, Montenegro opened the first section of the motorway, the 41-km Smokovac-Matesevo stretch, which was built by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC). In January, the government opened a tender for the preparation of a preliminary design for the construction of the third section, the 50-km Andrijevica-Boljare stretch.

($ = 0.940 euro)