Montenegro to get 200 mln euro EBRD loan for motorway stretch - PM

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) plans to approve a loan of 200 million euro ($217.6 million) to Montenegro for the construction of the 21-kilometre Matesevo-Andrijevica section of the motorway linking Bar to Boljare, prime minister Milojko Spajic said.

The European Commission will also grant Montenegro 40% of the total cost of the project under the WBIF (Western Balkans Investment Framework). The exact amount of the grant, he added, has not yet been determined because the precise value of the project is unknown, Spajic said in a video posted on the Facebook page of his Europe Now party on Thursday.

A tender for the contractor will be opened by the middle of this year, so that the construction work can begin by the end of the year, said Milan Ljiljanic, executive director of Montenegro's state-run motorway operator Monteput.

The Matesevo-Andrijevica stretch is the second section of the 129-km Bar-Boljare motorway that Montenegro will build. In July 2022, Montenegro opened the first section of the motorway, the 41-km Smokovac-Matesevo stretch, which was built by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC). In January, the government opened a tender for the preparation of a preliminary design for the construction of the third section, the 50-km Andrijevica-Boljare stretch.

The Bar-Boljare motorway will link Montenegro's Adriatic port of Bar to the country's border with Serbia in the north. It is part of European transport Corridor XI, a ferry/motorway corridor linking Italy's Bari to Romania's Bucharest via the port of Bar and Serbia's Belgrade.

The WBIF is a regional facility supporting EU enlargement and socio-economic development in the Western Balkans.