China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) has won a €335m contract to build a 33km motorway in Republika Srpska, one of the two entities comprising Bosnia and Herzegovina, See News reports.

CSCEC was selected by Autoputevi, the state-owned motorway operator, for the project after it entered the lowest of eight bids.

It is the latest in a series of Chinese road and rail projects in the Balkans, including a billion dollar motorway in Montenegro, three motorway sections in Serbia, a high-speed rail line between Belgrade and Budapest and the recently completed Pelješac Bridge in Croatia.

The road will run between the small town of Vukosavlje and the self-governing city of Brčko near the Slovenian border. A second 37km section will run as far as the border with Serbia. Both are expected to be complete by 2030.

The two projects will be part of the east–west corridor between Banja Luka, the capital of Srpska, and the Serbian capital of Belgrade.