Turkish transport minister Ahmet Arslan and Serbian deputy prime minister Zorana Mihajlovic have signed a letter of intent to involve Turkey in building a 60km stretch of motorway between Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina as an extension of the epic "Corridor 11″Â programme of works.
The letter was signed during a state visit to Serbia by Turkish president Recep Erdogan.
The project is significant for Serbia because its motorway network extends over only 782km at present, compared with 3,700km in the UK.
"This is not the first project that Serbia is implementing with Bosnia Herzegovina, but it is the largest one, following the construction of the Ljubovija-Bratunac bridge," Zorana Mihajlovic said.
The route of Corridor 11 (Creative Commons)
Expected to cost €830m, the motorway will run from Preljine, a town in central Serbia, west through Uzice to Kotroman on the Bosnian border.
The Serbian portion of the route has been split into 11 sections and is being built by companies from around the world.
China Communications Construction Company is building a €210m, 18km stretch in Belgrade, together with an industrial park and a 1.7km bridge across the Sava and Kolubara rivers. This is being funded on "very favourable" terms by the China Exim bank.
Image: Serbia’s A1 motorway (Creative Commons)
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