Four years ago, Vučić said that a kilometer of the "Smile of Vojvodina" expressway would cost "420-430 million euros, and that in a slightly more expensive version." A week ago, it reached 12 million euros per kilometer. The Chinese are building, there was no tender
The "Smile of Vojvodina" high-speed road, which should shorten the journey between Sombor and Kikinda, is a fabulously expensive project, primarily due to credit financing and foreign contractors, and all of this fuels the fear that corrupt practices are also present, according to the domestic professional public, a it says "today".
The construction of this road through Vojvodina was recently - again - announced by the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, when he presented the "Leap into the Future, Serbia 2027" plan. According to his current calculations, the construction of the 162-kilometer-long Bački Breg-Sombor-Kula-Vrbas-Srbobran-Bečej-Kikinda-Nakovo road should cost almost two billion euros.
Some experts believe that it is a "pepper" high price many times higher than the real costs, because a kilometer of this high-speed two-lane road will cost around 12 million euros, as if it were a four-lane highway. For example, a kilometer of the "Fruškogorski Corridor" highway, which is being built by the Chinese company China Road And Bridge Construction, with the longest tunnel in Serbia, costs 12,7 million euros.
It is interesting that just four years ago, Vučić, addressing the residents of Zapadnobački district, stated that the "Smile of Vojvodina" will cost 420-430 million euros, and that "in a slightly more expensive version". In the meantime, the price, according to Vučić, has increased almost five times.
Expensive Chinese
This part of Serbia's "jumping into the future", which, according to Vučić, should be finished by 2026 is actually a completely Chinese project, writes the New Economy. The "Smile of Vojvodina" will be built by the company China Construction Eighth Engineering Division, which is its first job in Serbia, and which is starting the work with a loan from the State of Serbia in the Chinese Exim Bank.
Civil engineer Danijel Dašić explains for New Economy:
"The saying that quality materials are used for installation in infrastructure in Europe, and low-quality politicians are used in Serbia, receives new evidence and facts every day. That 12,2 million per kilometer is a lot even for a highway through the plains, let alone a normal two-lane highway. According to the COMPASS database (which tracks the costs of construction works around the world) for the year 2024, the cost of building the highway as foreseen by this project is from 3,34 - 3,78 million per kilometer. And it's dollars, not euros, so the price goes even lower."
Criticisms of infrastructure projects carried out by the state in cooperation with Chinese partners have been directed before, mostly to the price, which is negotiated directly and not through public tenders, as was the case in the case of the aforementioned "Fruškogorsk Corridor" in October 2020. reminds the New Economy.
At that time, a price of 48 million euros was contracted for 606 kilometers of highway, some 400 million more than originally expected, although in the meantime a bridge over the Danube near Kovil was added to the project.
How long is the section actually?
Another interesting thing related to the "Smile of Vojvodina" is the contradictory data on the length of the road itself. Although the length of 186 kilometers is often mentioned in the public, the spatial plan from last year established the exact length of 164 kilometers and 392 meters.
If the road is to be longer, it would mean that the price per kilometer is 10,75 million euros, still drastically more than originally planned.
Examples from the region
Comparative examples of highway construction in the region show how much more this is than what could be expected. For example, 28 kilometers of highway through the Demirkapil Gorge and difficult mountainous terrain, with two tunnels of 1200 meters each and six bridges up to half a kilometer long in North Macedonia cost 218 million euros, or 7,8 million euros per kilometer. That highway was built by the Greeks.
In Croatia, which itself had problems with high prices paid for certain sections, the average price on the Bosiljevo-Split highway, where there were no such problems, stopped at 7,1 million euros per kilometer, as confirmed by Croatian Highways.
Debt to China
In Serbia, Vojvodina sections cost 12 million per kilometer. The Chinese who build them are becoming more and more creditors of our country, writes New Economy. Already, on various grounds, Serbia owes the Chinese Exim Bank more than the International Monetary Fund: 2,61 versus 2,38 billion euros. And it won't end there.
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A black picture and the breakdown of the rule of law subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
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