Croatia has opened a section of the European Corridor 5c motorway between Halasica Bridge and the town of Beli Manastir.
Corridor 5c - or ‘Vc’ if using a Roman numeral - is a major pan-European transport link connecting Hungary and eastern Croatia to neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Adriatic Sea.
The majority of the 702km route crosses Bosnia and Herzegovina and is a key priority for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and its partners, in particular the European Union, which helped fund the work.
The completion of the Croatian part of Corridor 5c will enable full integration of the eastern areas of the Slavonia region into the road network and facilitate traffic connections between Croatia and Hungary, contributing to the economic development of the wider region, a notice from the EBRD said.
The EBRD provided a loan of up to €55 million to Croatia’s state-owned national motorways company HAC for construction of the section. In addition, the EBRD is financing a 5km stretch of motorway between the town of Beli Manastir and the Hungarian border, due for completion in 2024. The EBRD’s financing was complemented by a €52 million loan from the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development.