December 29 (SeeNews) - North Macedonia's government said it has decided to extend the deadline for the construction of the 600 million euro ($663.4 million) Kicevo-Ohrid motorway by China's Sinohydro Corporation following significant delays.
The transport ministry and the Public Enterprise for State Roads (PESR) will engage in negotiations with the contractor to extend the completion deadline using the existing financial resources, North Macedonia's government said in a statement on Thursday.
In the meantime, ongoing works on the motorway will continue, the government said.
In November, North Macedonia's transport ministry announced the engagement of an expert to scrutinise the project's implementation, prompted by prime minister Dimitar Kovacevski's statement expressing intent to propose the termination of the agreement with Sinohydro.
Sinohydro started the construction of the Kicevo-Ohrid motorway in 2014. The project was initially budgeted at 375 million euro, but due to multiple delays, the cost has escalated to over 600 million euro.
($ = 0.904 euro)