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

  • JP Autoceste eyes 2020 as completion date for Bosnia’s Corridor 5c
    March 3, 2016
    Around two-thirds of the Corridor 5c motorway project is expected to be completed by 2020, according to the director of the Bosnian motorways company JP Autoceste. Jasmin Buco said that 120km out of 337km of the motorway are complete. The corridor section, to connect Budapest with Ploce port in Croatia, is taking the most time. He said that the cost of the remaining part of the motorway is expected to be around €2.81 billion.
    Read More
  • Romania’s DEx12 Craiova-Pitesti on target
    November 17, 2021
    The DEx12, costing nearly €1 billion, will include 10 junctions and 75 bridges and passages.
    Read More
  • Chinese funding will help pay for Macedonia road project
    October 4, 2013
    In Macedonia a new 50km section of highway will be constructed, with €574 million of financing coming from China's Export-Import Bank. The Exim Bank credit line to Macedonia will be used to build a the highway connecting Skopje and Stip. The new route will also link Stip with pan-European transport corridor 10. The loan will carry an interest rate of 2% and will have a 20 year term with a five year grace period. Macedonia is close to completing work on the corridor 10 road project, which is worth €300 milli
    Read More
  • Increasing importance of alternate truck routes
    February 14, 2012
    The fabled Silk Route from China to Europe takes many forms, and is again becoming increasingly important as Patrick Smithreports The ancient Silk Road was never a single caravan route, but covered hundreds of kilometres in width extending in length for around 10,000km. This is the view of the European International Road Transport Union (IRU), and many other countries and organisations, who point out that it is a system of routes covering many countries via a series of branch roads that dates back some 2
    Read More

Highlighted Content