Alpine's replacement to build bridge across the Velika Morava River without tender

(Photo: Milica Stevuljević)

The Austrian-Slovenian consortium Alpine-Meteorit was hired to build that bridge and it had completed 40 percent of it before the work was halted because Alpine went bankrupt in mid-2013.

- We've got the green light from the bank (EIB) to start a shortened process and assign that work to Serbian companies. One foreign and three local firms have already applied for that job and their bids will be opened in few days - said Simonovic.

He explained that the implementation of that project worth about EUR 3 million would be resumed by the company which offered to build the bridge at the lowest price and for the shortest time.

According to him, the bridge should be completed by June 1st, which won't be possible because of necessary procedures that will take as much as two months to finish, meaning that the deadline will be breached for a month or two.

Construction of the new bridge, which is valued at about EUR 9 million, is financed with the proceeds of an EIB loan. This new steel bridge 322.5 meters long will have double tracks and weigh 2,400 t, and it will be a part of the new double-track railway 10.2 kilometers long.

The contract between Serbian Railways and the Alpine-Meteorit consortium was signed 30 December 2010 and the work commenced 10 February 2011.

The project was supposed to be completed in 540 days, that is, on 3 August 2012, but the deadline was later extended by 30 September 2013.