December 22 (SeeNews) - Serbia plans to open for traffic a motorway section linking Preljina to Pozega, in central Serbia, in the beginning of 2022, prime minister Ana Brnabic said.
With the launch of the motorway section, all traffic will move out of the Ovcar-Kablar gorge which will become a protected area, Brnabic said in a government statement on Monday.
In April, Serbia signed a loan deal with the Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank) for the 450 million euro ($550 million) construction of the Preljina-Pozega motorway section, to be carried out by China Communications Construction Company (CCCC).
The Preljina-Pozega section is part of Corridor XI - a motorway corridor linking Italy's Bari to Romania's Bucharest via Montenegro's port of Bar and Serbia's Belgrade. Corridor X will connect Austria's Salzburg to the Greek Aegean port of Thessaloniki, passing through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and North Macedonia.
($ = 0.8181 euro)