December 5 (SeeNews) - Serbia has signed a 745 million euro ($826.3 million) contract for the construction of the Morava Corridor motorway with a consortium of US civil engineering group Bechtel and Turkey's Enka, the infrastructure ministry said.
The cost of additional works on the 112.3 km-long motorway is projected at a further 20% of the price, the infrastructure ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
the Morava Corridor motorway will link European transport Corridors X and XI on Serbia's territory.
The agreement stipulates that the city of Krusevac will be connected to Corridor X in two years, Kraljevo and Cacak will be connected to Corridor XI in less than three years, while the total project will be completed in four years, the infrastructure ministry said.
"I expect Bechtel and its their partner, Turkish company Enka, to build the Morava Corridor within the deadline and according to the latest standards, in order to have a quality and safe motorway. It is also important for Serbian companies to work with them to become acquainted with the latest technologies used in the construction of motorways," infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic said after the signing of the contract.
The motorway will feature four lanes 15 metres in width each, two emergency lanes 5 metres in width each, 84 bridges and 29 level crossings. The motorway will have three sections -- Pojate-Krusevac, Krusevac-Adrani and Adrani-Preljina.
Corridor X will connect Salzburg in Austria to the Greek port of Thessaloniki, passing through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia. Corridor XI is a ferry/motorway corridor linking Italy's Bari to Romania's Bucharest via Montenegro's Bar port and Serbia's Belgrade.
($ = 0.901564 euro)