The 6.1-kilometre section and two interchanges to be built in northeastern Bosnia will be financed with a 70 million euro loan from EBRD and with the EU's investment grant of 15 million euros, officials said.

The pan-European VC corridor linking Hungarian capital Budapest in the north with the Croatian port of Ploce in the south is the main international transport link in Bosnia. It is expected to be completed by 2030 and its total cost is estimated at about 4 billion euros.

Separately on Thursday, the Bosnian regional motorways company Autoceste FBiH signed a 59.4 million euro deal with a local company to build another stretch of the Corridor VC in central Bosnia.

The Euro-Asfalt company will build a 2.65 km sub-section, including a 2.47 km tunnel from Ponirak to Vraca in central Bosnia. The construction will be financed with a 50 million euro loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and a 19 million euros grant from the Western Balkans Investment Fund.

The construction should be completed in 30 months, officials said.

Autoceste FBiH has built 105 km of the 335 km-long stretch of the Corridor VC passing through Bosnia's autonomous Bosniak-Croat Federation.