July 18 (SeeNews) - Serbia hopes to complete this autumn the construction of the eastern section of the motorway of European transport Corridor X linking the city of Nis to the border with Bulgaria, infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic said on Thursday.
"I believe that in the autumn we will open the whole eastern section of Corridor X for traffic, as a modern and, most importantly, a safe motorway," Mihajlovic said, as quoted in a statement by the Serbian infrastructure ministry.
The eastern section of Corridor X will not only improve the link of Serbia to Bulgaria but will represent an important transit route to Turkey and the Middle East, Mihajlovic said.
"The motorway is also important for the faster development of this part of Serbia, for the companies that operate in the Pirot Free Zone," she noted.
In May, Serbia completed the construction of the southern section of the motorway of Corridor X on its territory to the border of North Macedonia.
Construction works on Corridor X are being financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB), according to data published by state-owned motorway construction company Koridori Srbije.
Corridor X will connect Salzburg in Austria to the Greek port of Thessaloniki, crossing Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and North Macedonia. In Serbia, the project includes the Belgrade bypass motorway, as well as two separate sections, linking Nis to Levosoje, near the border with North Macedonia to the south, and to the border with Bulgaria to the east.