Two tenders for construction of sections of Horgoš-Požega highway next week - works in April

Two tenders for construction of the sections of Horgoš-Požega highway – Novi Sad-Zmajevo and Horgoš-Novi Sad - will be announced next week. If everything goes as planned, the works will start in April, and total of 20 km of highway will be built.

This should be the definite confirmation of failure of the concession contract that was signed with Austrian concessionaire "Alpine-Porr", which was supposed to build Horgoš-Požega highway. That is why the state got the idea to divide Novi Sad-Horgoš route into several sections and to announce tenders for each of them in order to make it possible for the local companies to participate in construction. The entire accompanying documentation already exists for aforementioned sections, and expropriation of the land has also been finished.

The Minister of Environment Protection and Spatial Planning, Oliver Dulić, confirmed yesterday (March 3, 2009) that the procedure for collecting of guarantees from the concessionaire, which had not met the terms from the contract, had started.

- That procedure is now underway in the foreign bank where the guarantees had been deposited – Dulić pointed out.

Dulić said that the Government of Serbia expected to collect those guarantees because the financial structure had not been closed yet, and if concessionaires “Alpine“ and “Porr“ decided to start arbitration, Serbia would respond by introducing adequate measures.