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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Ring road section to open on November 2

Belgrade, 23 October 2008

Minister for Infrastructure Milutin Mrkonjic announced today that a section of the ring road around Belgrade, from Orlovaca to Ostruznica, will be opened on November 2.

Milutin Mrkonjic

At a press conference on occasion of the Ministry’s first 100 days in office, Mrkonjic invited the media to accompany him on October 25 on a tour of the construction site at the Ostruznica Bridge, which is to connect the Ibar main road with Dobanovci and further on with the Novi Sad-Nis motorway.

Speaking about road infrastructure plans, the Minister reiterated that Corridor 10 must be finished during this government’s term and that within the next seven years the railway Corridor 10 is also to be completed, as well as the major portion of the work on the navigable road through Serbia.

The Minister said he is pleased with the budget revision for this year, according to which around RSD 2.5 billion will be set aside for the completion of the Leskovac-Lesovoje section of Corridor 10.

According to him, around €4 billion will be set aside in the next four years for Corridor 10, of which €1.6 billion will be used for road sections and €1.1 billion for railway sections, whereas around €400 million will be allocated for the remaining portion of the road network throughout Serbia.

Mrkonjic said that a total of €40 million will be set aside in 2008 for road infrastructure, €760 million in 2009, €1.1 billion in 2010, €1.3 billion in 2011 and finally €760 million in 2012.

The funds will be provided from foreign loans and the Serbian budget, while around 20% of funds will be raised from privatisation revenues, explained Mrkonjic.

As for railway network, Mrkonjic said that a double track railway, capable of taking speeds from 160 to 200 kilometres per hour, is to be constructed on Corridor 10.

He announced that he will show Minister of Economy and Regional Development Mladjan Dinkic a proposal to have the production of Italian Pendolino trains organised in the Fiat factory.

According to him, these trains are perfect for our railways as they would be able to travel 30% to 40% faster than the trains currently in use.

Mrkonjic also said that the concession agreement on Horgos-Pozega motorway construction will hopefully be broken by mutual consent, probably within 10 days, with neither Serbia nor the consortium Alpina Por incurring any losses.

The Minister announced that the concessionaire will have their bank guarantee returned and be paid off for drafting project documentation, adding that the Serbian government will consider whether Serbia suffered any damage requiring the concessionaire to reimburse possible debt. .

He pointed out that the working group, headed by Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic, is conducting these negotiations and added that Serbia is to make efforts to break the agreement by mutual consent and not to go to international arbitrage since in that case both sides would suffer.