Serbian Roads (Putevi Srbije) has entrusted the development of the conceptual design and feasibility study for the E-70 highway section, from Pančevo to Vršac and the Romanian border, to the Institute for Roads Belgrade and the Construction Institute Central Road Laboratory DOO from Veternik. The contract is worth 595 million dinars (approximately 5 million EUR) excluding VAT, and the selected companies will have one year to complete the documentation.
This tender was announced in October last year, with an estimated value of 600 million dinars excluding VAT. This was actually the second time the tender was launched, as it was first posted at the end of 2023 but was suspended just five days later. According to the explanation of the decision from Serbian Roads on November 20, 2023, the need for the public procurement was deemed to have “ceased” and would not be repeated during the same fiscal year, i.e., for the next six months. The job was initially estimated at 180 million dinars.
As part of the program to improve the country’s transport infrastructure, Serbia initiated the project to create the conceptual design for the E-70 highway section between Pančevo, Vršac, and the Romanian border. This project aims to improve traffic connectivity and create more favorable conditions for the transport of people and goods between Serbia and its neighboring countries.
The proposed route, running from Belgrade to Pančevo, Vršac, and Vatin, links European corridors IV and X, thereby strengthening the international transport network.
The planned route from Pančevo to the Romanian border will be approximately 65 kilometers long. The highway, crossing the Southern Banat region, will have four lanes, each 3.75 meters wide, emergency lanes of 2.5 meters, edge lanes totaling 3 meters, and a central divider of 3 meters, with shoulder lanes of 1.5 meters on each side. The design speed for this flat terrain route will be 130 km/h.
In the spatial plan for the special purpose area of this section, the future route will represent the shortest connection to Romania, a link that has been anticipated for over 15 years.
The area covered by the spatial plan includes several cadastral municipalities across multiple local government units. In the city of Pančevo, it includes the cadastral municipalities of Pančevo and Banatsko Novo Selo. The municipality of Kovin covers the cadastral municipality of Mramorak, while the municipality of Alibunar covers Vladimirovac, Alibunar, Banatski Karlovac, and Lokve. The municipality of Plandište covers the cadastral municipalities of Barice, Plandište, and Margita, while the city of Vršac includes the cadastral municipalities of Vršac, Vatin, and Mali Žam.
It is worth noting that the Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina adopted a decision in April 2023 to develop the spatial plan for the special purpose area of the infrastructure corridor of the E-70 highway, between Pančevo, Vršac, and the Vatin border crossing with Romania.
In September 2021, the public enterprise Putevi Srbije announced a tender for the preparation of the Preliminary Feasibility Study and the General Design of the E-70 highway section from Pančevo to Vršac and the Romanian border. The project was described as a continuation of the future bypass around Belgrade (Dobanovci – Ostružnica – Bubanj Potok – Vinča – Pančevo) and will represent the shortest road link between Romania, through Serbia and Montenegro, to Corridor X, and also to southern Italy, Albania, and the Mediterranean basin.
Additionally, in mid-2022, the agreement on the construction of the Belgrade-Timișoara highway was signed by the Serbian Minister of Construction, Transport, and Infrastructure, Tomislav Momirović, and the Romanian Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Sorin Mihail Grindeanu.
