Serbian roads to get Chinese funding

Talks between the Chinese Development Bank and the Serbian Government could result in €400-€450 million of Chinese funding for Serbian highway projects. The Danube coast and the Corridor 11 projects are among those earmarked for a potential cash boost. Serbia’s Ministry for Transport (MOT) is also in talks with Chinese partners about other highway builds including100km of the Belgrade-Cacak, Belgrade-Obrenovac, Preljina-Ljig and Lajkovac-Ljig routes, as well as the 100km Pojate-Preljina project. China Road
November 28, 2012 Read time: 2 mins

Talks between the Chinese Development Bank and the Serbian Government could result in €400-€450 million of Chinese funding for Serbian highway projects. The Danube coast and the Corridor 11 projects are among those earmarked for a potential cash boost.

Serbia’s Ministry for Transport (MOT) is also in talks with Chinese partners about other highway builds including100km of the Belgrade-Cacak, Belgrade-Obrenovac, Preljina-Ljig and Lajkovac-Ljig routes, as well as the 100km Pojate-Preljina project. 3366 China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) is the contractor showing strongest interest in the Pojate-Preljina regional highway, while a loan for the project may well come from China's Exim Bank with a repayment period of 18 years.

Extensive research into the cost of highway construction in the country has been conducted by Serbia’s MOT, revealing huge variations depending on topography and geology. The Serbia MOT has reported that the cost of construction of highways in Vojvodina county ranges from €1.5-€2.5 million/km, while in Grdelicka Klisura costs range between €10 million and €15 million/km. Meanwhile, in the mountainous terrain between Ljig and Cacak highway construction costs around €7.5 million/km. However, the straight highway section from Obrenovac-Ljig is also costing around €7.5 million/km. Serbian contractors are building the 12km stretch of highway from Ub-Lajkovac for around €5.8 million/km.

Meanwhile Serbia's national state owned highway company, 3235 Koridori Srbije, has awarded the contract for advisory services for the €1.9 billion Corridor 10 project to French company 2643 Egis International. Under the terms of the deal, Egis will provide support for construction of 83.4km of the E-80 highway between the City of Nis and the Bulgarian border at Dimitrovgrad. Egis will also oversee work on construction of sections of the E-75 highway between Leskovac and the Macedonian border.

In a further development, Serbian roads company Putevi Srbije claims that 112km of roads have been built in Serbia since 2000 - equivalent to just 9.3km/year. Putevi Srbije's data shows that the country has a total of 610km of highways, 50% less than Croatia. The authorities have promised construction of modern highways from Horgos towards the Bulgarian and Macedonian borders, and a highway towards the South Adriatic. They have been criticised for insufficient organisation of road construction.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Wacker Neuson sees business growth with strong results
    November 10, 2017
    The Wacker Neuson Group is reporting a strong third quarter performance for 2017. The company’s latest results reveal a marked increase in revenue and earnings and says it remains positive about the fourth quarter of 2017. Wacker Neuson says it expects its revenue and earnings forecast for the current fiscal year to come in at the higher end of previous forecasts. The Wacker Neuson Group reported revenue of € 378.7 million for the third quarter of 2017. This corresponds to an increase of 20% over the €315.
    Read More
  • Chinese highway projects being planned
    January 3, 2019
    A number of major road and bridge projects are now commencing in China. In Sichuan Province an environmental impact assessment report is being carried out for the Jigzhi-Barkam highway project. Work is starting shortly on the highway, which will stretch 224km and is expected to cost US$4.3 billion to construct. The report is being carried out by the province’s Ecology and Environment Agency. This new highway will provide many challenges to construction due to the topography of the route and will feature 190
    Read More
  • Pavers produce on Chinese road building project
    May 19, 2015
    Volvo tracked pavers are helping China meet its ambitious programme of building 10,000km of roads annually. China’s ambitious road building programme is seeing over 10,000km of new highway being completed every year. Productivity, reliability and good uptime of equipment are key to this programme being achieved. And to the north of Xi’an, four Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) ABG8820 tracked pavers recently worked 14 hours/day paving the final layer of asphalt on a new highway. This 96km route opened
    Read More
  • Qatar’s new highway requires huge logistics operation
    October 26, 2016
    In the Middle East nation Qatar, a large-scale highway project is underway that will make significant improvements for vehicle capacity and cut journey times for drivers. The new route will also improve transport connections between Qatar’s ports and neighbouring Saudi Arabia. At the same time, the new highway will carry much of the heavy vehicle traffic travelling between the two countries.
    Read More

Highlighted Content