June 5 (SeeNews) - Serbia's infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic has said the government does not plan to take out a loan for the construction of the Pozega-Boljare motorway section, part of pan-European Corridor XI.
The total investment in the construction of the section, linking Pozega to the border with Montenegro, is estimated at about 2 billion euro ($2.3 billion), Mihajlovic said in a press release issued by the Serbian infrastructure ministry on Monday.
"Currently, as a government, we think that it is better that we do not go for a loan for this section," Mihajlovic said during a conference on public-private partnership in Belgrade.
The Serbian infrastructure ministry signed on March a memorandum of understanding with China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) for the construction of the 107 km-long Pozega-Boljare motorway section. China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), a subsidiary of CCCC, will be in charge of preparing the project documentation - an assignment with a projected cost of 50 million euro.
The construction of the motorway section in central Serbia is expected to start in March 2019, Mihajlovic said earlier this year.
The motorway is part of pan-European Corridor XI - a motorway corridor linking Italy's Bari to Romania's Bucharest via Montenegro's Bar port and Serbia's Belgrade, of which 103 km are planned to be completed this year.
($ = 0.85376 euro)