The additional deadline for the completion of the priority section expired in the end of September, and to this day, the citizens of Montenegro do not know when they will finally be able to use the benefits from the first 40 kilometers of the Bar-Boljare highway. The current government has announced that it will examine the justification of the China Road and Bridge Corporation, CRBC, to extend the deadline for the completion of the first section of the highway for the third time due to the coronavirus pandemic. The annex, however, hasn’t been signed, so the new government will have to deal with it, writes Dnevne Novine daily.
The first deadline for the completion of works, according to the contract, was May 2019. However, due to a series of delays and the scope of work as well, which was even higher than planned, a new deadline was agreed on September 30, 2020. The government then signed an annex to the contract on the design and construction of the Smokovac-Mateševo section with the company CRBC, which also included the Smokovac interchange, water supply and permanent power supply projects.
That deadline wasn’t met either, allegedly due to “force majeure”, i.e. the coronavirus outbreak.
There is no new agreement, and it’s up to the new government to examine whether it is justified to give the Chinese a third chance or simply charge penalties for delays in completing the work.
It’s interesting that Montenegro will have the priority section completed without the minister of transport, because the Prime Minister-designate, Mr Zdravko Krivokapić, abolished that department. Therefore, the annex to the contract with CRBC is likely to be signed by the future Minister of Capital Investments, Mr Mladen Bojanić.
