ZAGREB - A Chinese consortium led by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) has won the bid for the construction of the first phase of Peljesac bridge and its access roads, a major infrastructure project in Croatian history, local road operator Harvatske Ceste (Croatian Roads) announced on Friday.

"Of the three bids submitted for the award of a public procurement contract, the bidding community was selected - China Road and Bridge Corporation, CCCC Highway Consultants, CCCC Second Highway Engineering and CCCC Second Harbor Engineering with a bid price of 2.08 billion kuna (around $340 million) without VAT and the construction period of 36 months," Croatian Roads said.

The project of the over-2,000-meter-long cable-stayed bridge, whose estimated value is over 400 million euros ($485 million) and will be partially sponsored by European Union fund, was opened for bidding in September 2017.

It had also attracted Austria's Strabag, whose offer was 2.62 billion kuna excluding VAT, and a joint offer of 2.55 billion kuna excluding VAT by the Italian company Astaldi and Turkey's IC Ictas.

Crossing the Mali Ston Bay over the Adriatic Sea, the Peljesac bridge connects the southernmost Dubrovnik-Neretva County to the rest of the mainland, giving Croatia a continuous land link that bypasses the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Croatia has been brooding over the idea of a Peljesac bridge for almost two decades.