March 15 (SeeNews) - Serbian infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic has said that China's state-owned hydropower engineering and construction company Sinohydro and Azeri builder Azvirt will shortly start the construction of a stretch of the Belgrade bypass road.
"We have been waiting for 20 years for the construction of the Belgrade bypass. This government started this very important project and will start construction works on the stretch between Ostruznicki bridge and Bubanj Potok municipality in the short term," Mihajlovic said during a meeting with the Azeri ambassador to Serbia, Eldar Hasanov, according to a statement issued by the ministry earlier this week.
Azvirt owns modern equipment and was the main contractor in the project for the construction of a road connecting Ljig to Preljina, in central Serbia, that was completed in November, Hasanov said in the statement.
In November, the Serbian government signed a 207 million euro ($220 million) deal with Sinohydro's parent Power Construction Corporation of China (PCCC) for the construction of the 19.5 kilometre-long Ostruznicki bridge-Bubanj Potok section of the Belgrade bypass road.
The stretch, which will include 22 bridges and four tunnels, is part of the 37.3 km-long Section B of the bypass road in the southern area of Belgrade.
The construction of the bypass, with a total length of about 69 km, is carried out with funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
($ = 0.940738 euro)