Viadukt-Hering Tie-in Files Lowest Bid in Tender for Transport Corridor Vc Section in Bosnia - Media

The Croatian-Bosnian tie-in has offered the lowest construction cost of 43.2 million euro ($65.1 million) for the Kakanj-Biljesevo section, Poslovni Dnevnik (www.poslovni.hr) quoted Erdal Trhulj, the head of the Federal Motorway Construction, Management and Maintenance Directorate of the Muslim-Croat Federation, as saying.

Poslovni said Viadukt-Hering placed the leading bid in competition with a total of nine companies but did not specify if they all bid alone or had teamed up in consortia.

No information was immediately available on when the tender was launched and when its bidding deadline expired.

According to Trhulj, all activities related to the final selection of a building contractor, the signing of the contract, the granting of the relevant building permits and the land expropriation should be completed by the end of the year so that construction can start in January, Poslovni said.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved a 45 million euro loan for the 9.5 kilometre Kakanj-Biljesevo road, in central Bosnia, which is one of four sections that will get funding from the EIB and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Poslovni said.

In addition to the Kakanj–Biljesevo road project, Bosnia will use the 480 million euro in combined loans extended by the EBRD and EIB also for the construction of the 8.9 kilometre Svilaj-Odzak road in the north of the country, the 21.4 kilometre southern section Bijaca-Pocitelj, and the 18.9 kilometre Vlakovo–Tarcin road, all part of Corridor Vc, Poslovni added.

The north-to-south transport corridor Vc connects the Hungarian capital Budapest with the Croatian Adriatic port of Ploce via Bosnia.

The corridor will stretch for a total of some 330 kilometres across Bosnian territory.

The Muslim-Croat Federation is one of the two autonomous parts forming post-war Bosnia. The other is the Serb Republic.

($ = 0.6631 euro)