Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities and the Turkish Cengiz construction company on Monday signed an agreement worth more than €208 million for the construction of 5.5 kilometres of the Vc corridor running through the country, which is financed with a loan from European banks and EU funds.

Adnan Terzic, director of the Autoceste FBiH, the road authority in Bosnia's Federation entity, said the Poprikuse-Nemila section was complex, consisting of a 3,600-metre tunnel, two viaducts, two bridges and access roads to the M-17 trunk road. Construction work is expected to be completed in three years.

The section is located just north of Zenica.FBiH Minister of Transport and Communications Denis Lasic underlined that despite the coronavirus, construction work on the Vc motorway through Bosnia and Herzegovina had continued intensively throughout the year, adding that he expected Bosnia and Herzegovina to have 74 kilometres of the motorway completed within the next three and a half years.

Cengiz project manager Evren Utku Gok said that the project was very demanding seeing that it crosses the River Bosna twice, as well as overpassing a trunk road and a railway.

The construction of the Poprikuse-Nemila section will be financed with a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (€70 million), the European Investment Bank (€90 million) and more than €41 million worth of EU grants, approved as part of the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF).