Skip to main content

Chinese firms to work on Serbia’s Corridor 11 project

Serbia and China have signed a memorandum of understanding for construction of two sections of Serbia’s Corridor 11. The MoU was inked in during Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s visit to the Chinese capital Beijing last week. Serbia’s Tanjug news agency reported that Vucic said the deal was worth around €209 million and included construction of the 18km Surcin-Obrenovac bridge. Corridor 11 runs from the Serbian capital Belgrade southwest to the border with Montenegro, another member state of
November 30, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Serbia and China have signed a memorandum of understanding for construction of two sections of Serbia’s Corridor 11.

The MoU was inked in during Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s visit to the Chinese capital Beijing last week.

Serbia’s Tanjug news agency reported that Vucic said the deal was worth around €209 million and included construction of the 18km Surcin-Obrenovac bridge. Corridor 11 runs from the Serbian capital Belgrade southwest to the border with Montenegro, another member state of the former Yugoslavia that dissolved after a brutal war in the late 1990s.
 
Vucic told Serbia's state broadcaster RTS that the arrangement with China was "a very favourable credit arrangement with a lengthy grace period" that was based on a “dramatically” lower construction cost.

The prime minister added he believed that the second section, from Cacak to Pozega, would be finished by the end of 2018 - connecting with Uzice in western Serbia, and extending farther toward Montenegro.

Earlier this year, Serbian vice president Zorana Mihajlovic said that the Corridor 10 motorway is expected to be completed by the end of 2016 and that sufficient funding has been secured. She noted that in the past year, 58km of the motorway was been paved and another 120km is expected to be paved this year. Greek company Terna is the contractor.

Corridor 10 is one of the most important pan-European transport corridors that runs through Serbia to connect Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Greece. The goal is to create a transport system within Serbia that will be compatible with that of the European Union.

Meanwhile, Serbian news website B92 reported last week that the prime minister of Montenegro said China will invest in two major road projects. Milo Dukanovic, said China Roads and Bridges Corporation and the China Communications and Construction Company will work on the Bar-Serbian border motorway project. The first part will be financed with an €800 million loan from the Chinese State Bank.

Related Content

  • Serbia upgrading infrastructure
    March 16, 2012
    Serbia has managed to reduce the cost of building the Corridor 10 highway by €80 million. These funds will instead be used to pay for upgrades and improvements needed for the second section of the highway project, close to Neradovci.
  • Tunnel Boom in Central and Eastern Europe
    September 15, 2015
    Following the success of the 41st World Tunnel Congress held in Croatia last May, World Highways looks at two signi_ cant projects in Slovakia and Serbia – Adriana Potts reports Central and Eastern Europe is buzzing with a number of major projects being developed - including highways, bridges and tunnels – and with many more in the pipeline. The region is expected to be highly active with plans for developing infrastructure in the next two decades, according to Davorin Koli , president of the Croatian
  • EBRD mulls loan for Macedonian Corridor 8 work
    July 13, 2021
    The €110million (US$ 130.5 million) load would help construct a 10.7km section, including a tunnel, between Bukojcani and Kicevo.
  • A Chinese loan will help develop Macedonia’s roads
    December 4, 2012
    A loan from China will provide a crucial portion of the funding being used by the Macedonian Government to build new highway sections. These highway stretches include key links between from Stip and the existing pan-European, Corridor 10. Once complete the new highway sections will connect Macedonia with Greece and Serbia by road. Other highway sections planned will run from Ohrid to Kicevo and form a portion of the unfinished Corridor 8 intended to connect Macedonia with Albania and Bulgaria. The projects