An examination of official government documentation has found no publicly available evidence that the contract for the construction of Serbia’s Morava Corridor motorway has been amended through formal annexes, nor that any contractual basis exists for increasing the price of what has become the country’s most expensive road infrastructure project.
The issue emerged following the publication of the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure’s quarterly activity report covering the April–June 2025 period. While the report outlines progress on major infrastructure projects, it does not include the original construction contract for the Morava Corridor, nor any annexes that would clarify changes to the scope, price, or financing structure of the project. As a result, it remains unclear whether cost increases were contractually approved or formally documented.
The Morava Corridor is a 112-kilometre motorway connecting Pojate and Preljina, designed as a strategic east-west transport link across central Serbia. Since the project’s launch, government-approved financing for its construction has exceeded €1.6 billion, a level significantly higher than early cost estimates. Independent fiscal and infrastructure analysts note that while rising construction material and energy costs have affected projects across Europe, these factors alone do not fully explain the scale of the increase observed in this case.
Under standard public procurement and infrastructure contracting rules, price adjustments and additional works are typically limited to a defined percentage of the original contract value and must be justified through formally approved annexes. However, in the absence of publicly disclosed documentation, it is not possible to verify whether such mechanisms were applied to the Morava Corridor project, or whether deviations from the original contract were authorised through extraordinary legal or financial arrangements.
The lack of transparency has prompted renewed scrutiny from civil society organisations and fiscal oversight experts, who argue that public access to core contractual documents is essential for accountability in large-scale infrastructure projects. While government officials continue to describe the Morava Corridor as a strategic national priority, detailed explanations regarding its cost evolution and contractual governance have yet to be made public, leaving key questions about financial oversight and procurement compliance unresolved.
