Kadinjaca Tunnel Gets a Start Date: Work Begins October 1
Serbia's president announced in Zlatibor that work on the Kadinjaca tunnel begins October 1, while the Zlatibor bypass costs between 22 and 23 million euros, of which seven have been paid.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday, August 10, in Zlatibor that work on the Kadinjaca tunnel begins October 1. It is the first time a start date has been named for the stretch of road promised in western Serbia for decades, and Vucic made the announcement while touring works on the Zlatibor bypass, alongside Cajetina municipality president Milan Stamatovic.
The same visit produced figures for the bypass. Vucic said the entire route will be built, that the work is worth between 22 and 23 million euros, and that seven million euros have been paid out so far. It was the first day of his tour of southwestern Serbia, where he visited Prijepolje, Priboj and Nova Varos before Zlatibor.
What exactly was said about the tunnel
The president announced the date in an address to the crowd, with a nod to how long the tunnel has been talked about.
“October 1, finally, after 100 years of back and forth, and after, I think, 50 years of promises from every possible government, work on the Kadinjaca tunnel starts on October 1, and I think that is great news for both Uzice and Bajina Basta. I would rather not tell you how much trouble and how many problems this has been. So, work starts on October 1, and we are going to finish it, to get through one of the hardest sections this way and do what is best,” Vucic said.
Kadinjaca is a mountain pass on the road linking Uzice with Bajina Basta and, further on, the Drina river, and that climb is the most exposed stretch of the route in winter. In the same address, Vucic also announced the signing of a contract for the section running from Pozega through Uzice, Zlakusa and Sevojno toward Mackat, as well as an expressway toward Kotroman and Visegrad.
How much does the Zlatibor bypass cost?
According to what the president said on site, the bypass is worth between 22 and 23 million euros in total, and seven million has already been paid out. The route runs about 9.5 kilometers, of which 2.6 kilometers are currently under construction.
“Milan spoke about this bypass: we will build the whole bypass, the value will be between 22 and 23 million euros,” Vucic said.
A short while later, answering reporters’ questions about total investment in the Zlatibor district, Vucic mentioned the same project with a different figure, saying the bypass is worth 25 to 26 million euros and that, together with the sports courts, it comes to 65 million. The gap between the two figures given on the same day was not explained, and the final number will only be known once the contracts are signed.
Sports complex and the 2028 deadline
Stamatovic told the Tanjug news agency that Zlatibor is building 13 outdoor and indoor courts in total, and that both the bypass and the sports complex are expected to be finished by 2028. The courts are worth close to 40 million euros altogether.
“Five basketball courts, two padel courts, so we are counting on help from the Government of Serbia to build something like a small mini Antalya and let many international sports teams come train in Zlatibor. We expect to have the first of these courts ready within two years so we can start hosting teams, because we have a real need, and the accommodation capacity, for training camps for sports teams, both domestic and foreign, but we do not have enough courts,” Stamatovic said.
The Cajetina municipality president also said how much of that is local funding. “As the local government, we have put in 10 million euros so far for these works and this infrastructure,” he said, adding that the municipality had started using its own resources instead of waiting on the national budget.
Railway, cable car and a billion euros
Alongside the road and the courts, a high speed rail line was also announced, running Valjevo, Kosjeric, Pozega, Uzice, Priboj, on which trains would move faster than 120 kilometers per hour. Vucic said work is underway on signing the contract and that, besides passenger traffic, the line would also allow for faster freight transport. He also mentioned a cable car to Pribojska Banja, which he said he had discussed with local officials.
Adding up everything he mentioned that day came to a sum exceeding a billion euros.
“More than a billion euros, when you add it all up, when you add up the highways, or rather the expressways, and everything,” the president said.
For now, the tunnel under Kadinjaca is the only item on that list with an actual date attached. Contracts for the Mackat section, for the expressway toward Kotroman and for the railway line still need to be signed, which makes October 1 the first deadline that can be checked on the ground. The president recently also announced penalties for the contractors working on the Old Railway Bridge in Belgrade, a reminder that a deadline announced at a construction site is not the same as a deadline written into a contract.
