According to the highway feasibility studies from 2009 by "Scott Wilson" and from 2012 by "URS Infrastructure & Environment UK Limited", all three important indicators were negative although all had to be positive to start the project financing and construction of the highway section.
The studies were published on Friday by the Ministry of Capital Investments.
The net present value of the investment had to be a positive number, and according to the first study, it is minus 122 million, and in the second it is minus 158 million.
The economic internal rate of return had to be higher than 8 percent, and it is 6,59 and 4,5 percent. The benefit/cost ratio had to be greater than one, and it is 0,79 and 0,59.
In the case of the Smokovac - Mateševo section, none of the three indicators were met, so the priority section did not even meet the basic criteria for financing from international financial institutions. Unlike the Montenegrin public, the governments of that time knew that this share did not meet the conditions to be financed by institutions from the EU, so now it is clearer why they sought partners outside of it or that these partners should find the money themselves.
Previous governments have only announced that the highway section will not be financially profitable, but that it will be in an "economic sense", although this has never been explained or proven by any published study.
It was also mentioned that the area through which this section of the highway passes will be a future tourist center, among other things, citing hotels with thousands of beds on the shores of the Morača lake, which would be created by the construction of several hydroelectric plants.
The construction of the section from Podgorica to Metesevo, according to the study of the company "Scott Wilson", should have cost 501,6 million euros, but it envisaged a combination of highway and expressway.
According to the "URS Infrastructure & Environment" study, that cost would be 706,8 million euros for the full profile of the highway. The studies were done on the basis of different conceptual solutions.
Even before these studies, the former government made a political decision on the construction of the highway.
Thus, in 2009, a contract was signed with the consortium led by the Croatian Konstruktor, so that on October 15, 2009, the works in the village of Gornje Mrke would officially begin.
However, the Constructor did not provide the necessary financial guarantee, i.e. to find the money for the construction, which the Government would later return to him.
According to the signed contract with Konstruktor from June 2009, this consortium was supposed to build the entire section from Bar to Boljar for 2,8 billion euros, and the deadline for completion was the end of 2016.
The first full-profile section Smokovac - Mateševo was supposed to cost 603 million euros.
After the contract with Konstruktor was terminated in the spring of 2010, without paying a penalty, the Government spent five years looking for new construction partners.
On October 30, a design and construction contract was signed with the Chinese company CRBC, and the price was set at EUR 809,6 million. A financial contract was also signed according to which 85 percent of the value of the works was financed from a loan of 944 million dollars from the Chinese Exim Bank, and the remaining 15 percent was to be paid by the Government to the contractor from the budget.
The works started on May 11, 2015 and were supposed to be completed on the same day in 2019. The main works were delayed for almost a year already.
The deadlines for completion were extended three times, and with annexes to the contract and the transfer of part of the obligations to Monteput, the cost of construction was increased by another hundred million.
According to the Government's data, from last week until now, the investor has been paid 724 million euros for the main part of the works, and another 38 million euros for additional works on the forgotten loop, water supply and electricity network.
Monteput took over part of the works on the power grid worth 38,2 million euros. The construction of the highway should be completed on November 30, but it will take more time to complete the electronic monitoring system and technical acceptance in order to open it to traffic.
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