Albania’s Thumana-Kashar section of the A1 motorway may cost 50% less than planned, according to a recent feasibility study.
The revised price tag was around €169 million, down from nearly €330 million under a now-cancelled public-private partnership contract, as reported by Albania’s news agencies.
The government called a halt to the PPP deal earlier this year. The revised work is expected to get access to European Union funds.
Albania’s government has been at loggerheads over the past year with Parliament over which institution should grant PPP deals, including major road projects such as the Thumana-Kashar motorway.
The A1 is a 115km four- motorway connecting Albania’s Adriatic Sea coast at the port of Durrës in the southwest to the Albanian Alps at the town of Morinë in the northeast. It is part of the European route E851 and will form part of the Adriatic–Ionian motorway and Pan-European Corridor X.
