What happened with construction of Kragujevac-Batočina road?

Shortly before last-year elections in September the construction Kragujevac - Batočina highway commenced, but it was stopped already next month. When will it be continued - nobody knows!

When the works officially commenced, Minister Velimir Ilić announced construction of road with six lanes, 24 km long, financed from the domestic budget or loans. On that occasion he also said that concession was not solution for the construction of that road because there was no economic justification for that.

Ilić said that the concession that would be remunerative meant traffic flow of about 16,000 vehicles per day and the actual traffic flow is only 6,000 vehicles on daily basis. On the contrary, the State would have problem, because it would have to "cover" such business additionally. The decision on realization of some project by means of concession has to be approved by the Government and verified by the Parliament. The procedure and check last long and the construction of this highway is one of the "minor investments" that can be financed from the domestic budget, or from good-term loans approved by, let's say, European Investment Bank.

The plan was that the construction of highway costs about €32m and feasibility study was designed for that purpose. The first phase implied construction of 4.5 km of road and all that was done is covering of one part of the lane with gravel.

Before the May Day holidays, the City Parliament started initiative for the construction of highway through allotment of concession rights to foreign or domestic investor. It is expected that this idea will be approved by the Government of Serbia and Republic Parliament.