Bechtel-Enka consortium sole bidder for Serbian road project

ENKA Insaat ve Sanayi AS

27/08/2019 13:08

BELGRADE, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Bechtel-Enka, a U.S.-Turkish
consortium, was the only bidder for a project to build a 112.5
km (70 mile) road in Serbia, a part of government plans to spend
8 billion euro ($8.9 billion) on infrastructure, the
infrastructure ministry said on Tuesday. 
    Belgrade has been seeking partners to build the road to link
towns along the West Morava River in central Serbia which have a
total population of around 500,000.
    The new road would also connect the area with two other main
highways.
    "The government will make a final decision in the coming
days about choosing the strategic partner for the Morava
(highway) corridor," the ministry's statement said. 
    Serbia wants to join the European Union and to do so it must
strengthen economic links with its neighbours, including former
Yugoslav republics.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N24D2V5
    Under the terms of the Aug. 5 tender, potential partners
were required to have had annual turnover of at least 1 billion
euros ($1.11 billion) between 2016 and 2018, and provide a
letter of intent from international financial bodies, banks or
other sources for the financing of the project of at least 400
million euros. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2513IE
    In 2019, Bechtel-Enka  ENKAI.IS  also built a
700-million-euro 65.5-kilometer motorway linking Serbia's former
province of Kosovo with neighbouring North Macedonia and in 2013
a highway from Kosovo's capital Pristina to the border with
Albania.
    
    ($1 = 0.8973 euros)

 (Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Jane Merriman)
 ((aleksandar.vasovic@thomsonreuters.com; +381113044930;))