June 19 (SeeNews) - Serbia expects US civil engineering group Bechtel to start the construction of the Morava Corridor motorway linking European transport Corridors X and XI on the country's territory in the summer of 2019, infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic said.
"We are quickly preparing for the construction, and our goal is to start work during the summer, which is why it is important that we have a commercial agreement as soon as possible," Mihajlovic said, as quoted in a statement by the infrastructure ministry on Tuesday.
The construction of the motorway is of strategic importance for Serbia, Mihajlovic said during a meeting in Belgrade with Stuart Jones, president, regions and corporate relations of Bechtel.
In October, the government signed a memorandum of understanding with Bechtel for the construction of the 110 km motorway linking Preljina to Pojate, in central Serbia, known as the Morava Corridor. The investment in project will total 800 million euro ($896.2 million), the government said back then.
Corridor X will connect Salzburg in Austria to the Greek port of Thessaloniki, passing through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia. Corridor XI is a ferry/motorway corridor linking Italy's Bari to Romania's Bucharest via Montenegro's Bar port and Serbia's Belgrade.
($ = 0.8926 euro)