Montenegro is to cancel the pre-qualification tender for a 22km motorway project following a request from the EU and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which are financing the project, See News reports.
The request came after the Montenegrin transport ministry shortlisted three Chinese companies, and one from Azerbaijan. The request was also prompted by protests from local people against the chosen route.
Nine bidders had expressed interest in the €605m sub-project of the 165km Bar-to-Boljare motorway, itself a sub-project of the highway that will eventually connect Belgrade with the Adriatic.
The road has a price tag of €2bn, reflecting the amount of civil engineering that will be necessary to drive the road through the region’s mountainous terrain. Altogether, some 50 tunnels and 95 bridges and viaducts are planned.
The new tender will be open to all companies, including those who failed to qualify.
The nine companies in the running were Austria’s Strabag, Turkish firms Dogus and Cengiz, North Macedonia’s Gradjevinski Institut Makedonija and Baybnet Group of Montenegro.
The shortlisted bidders were Azerbaijan’s Azvirt, China’s Shandong Hi-Speed Group, Power Construction Corporation of China and China Communications.
The decision to cancel the procedure will delay the planned launch of construction works on the project, which was expected to take place this year.
The section affected by the retender will run between the towns of Matesevo and Andrijevica. It will be the second section of the Montenegrin element of the motorway.
The first was the 41km section between Smokovac and Matesevo, which was built by China Road and Bridge, a subsidiary of China Communications, and opened for traffic in July 2022.
The motorway is part of the EU’s transport corridor XI, a ferry/motorway route connecting Bari in Italy with Bucharest via Montenegro and Belgrade.
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