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Weekly Lists
March 31, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 23
bne:
Infrastructure
Chinese civil engineering firm begins construction work on Serbia's rail network
ADB to finance $114mn Black Sea resort bypass in Georgia
Construction work on a 7.5km railway near Serbia’s capital Bel- grade began on March 30 and is being carried out by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), a public enter- prise, Tanjug reported.
This is a first time that a Chinese company has carried out con- struction work on Serbia’s railways and the arrangement is ex- pected to further strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries. Serbia’s outgoing President Tomislav Nikolic is paying an official visit to Xi Jinping on March 30, making this his last trip as president. On the same day, Nikolic was named an honorary citizen of Beijing for his personal contribution to enhancing the friendly ties between Serbia and China.
The contract for the work on Belgrade’s railway costs €23.7mn and is financed by a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $114mn loan to build a new road in Georgia that will contribute to the improvement of transport links in the country, the multilateral lender reported on March 29.
The loan would finance the construction of a 14.3-km bypass road around the Black Sea resort of Batumi, Georgia's second largest city and an important trade hub. The announcement comes less than a week after Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili an- nounced the construction of a four-lane mountain bypass linking east and west Georgia, a $800mn project that is also to be financed by the ADB.
The project to build the the Triblavina D1 motorway intersection near Bratislava is unlikely to be completed by its May deadline due to poor preparation, the Supreme Audit Office (NKU) said on March 27.
The auditor slammed the state National Highway Company for un- derestimating the scale of the project, and hinted at problems over transparency. Slovakia has seen several scandals in recent years connected to road building, a segment that is expected to help boost economic growth this year.
Audit office slams Slovak D1 motorway project