Serb motorway operator Koridori Srbije has launched the procedure for activating the bank guarantees on the Corridor 10 contracts it cancelled with Austrian road builder Alpine Bau earlier this month after it entered bankruptcy in June.

Koridori Srbije officially cancelled all four contracts of Alpine in the beginning of August – after it received a green light for the move by the World Bank and the EBRD, the project financiers.

The Serb company has initialed proceedings for the payment of EUR 5.1mn performance bank guarantee and EUR 2.7mn advance payment guarantee. In addition, Koridori Srbije has retained a EUR 2.9mn deposit, the company’s head Dmitar Djurovic was quoted as saying.

Djurovic said the bank guarantees are valid and they expect no problems with their payment.

He added that the company will evaluate in the next 45 days the work Alpine has completed on the projects – and then open a tender to pick up a new contractor. The procedure will probably last between six and nine months, which means works on the roads’ construction are expected to resume next year with the start of the construction season, Djurovic said.

In addition, Alpine also owes Serbian subcontractors some RSD 420mn (EUR 3.7mn). The Serb firms will e able to collect their claims if they inform Alpine’s bankruptcy receiver about them by August 16, 2013, Blic reported.

Alpine signed n April 2010 a EUR 30mn contract for the construction of two sections on the Pan-European Corridor 10 with Serbia, including the 15-km Pirot-Dimitrovgrad section (in the southeast – to the border with Bulgaria). The investor planned to complete the works within two years. The deal also included the 5.8-km Dimitrovgrad city bypass and the 8.6-km section to the Bulgarian border.