R7 Motorway (Kosovo)

R7 Motorway
Autostrada Ibrahim Rugova
Map of the R7 Motorway
Portion of the R 7 Motorway
Route information
Part of E851
Length	101 km (63 mi)
Major junctions
West end	Vërmica
East end	Merdar at the Serbian border
Location
Major cities	Prizren, Suharekë, Malishevë, Drenas, Fushë Kosovë, Obiliq, Prishtinë, Podujeva
Highway system
Roads in Kosovo

The R 7 Motorway (or Ibrahim Rugova) is a motorway located in Kosovo. Forming part of the E851, it is the first motorway constructed in the region and it links the Albanian border at the village of Vërmicë with the capital Pristina. Construction of the motorway started in April 2010. It was finished in 2013 with the Vërmicë-Pristina segment ending in Gjergjica at the M9. The highway is seen as part of the larger Vërmicë-Merdar corridor ending at the Merdare border crossing with Serbia in eastern Kosovo. R 7 is 101 km long at a cost of €824 million. This highway, along with the A1 Motorway in Albania, have set the travel time from Pristina to Tirana to 3 hours. Once the remaining E80 Pristina-Merdar section project will be finalized and completed, the motorway will link Kosovo through the present E80 highway with the Pan-European corridor X (E75) near Niš, Serbia.

Since the end of the Kosovo War of 1999, hundreds of thousands of Albanians have passed through the poor old mountain road to get to Albania's beaches. It was clear that building a highway in both sides would "crystallize a year-round tourism industry and double the size of the Albanian market", while allowing both communities to rationalize agriculture. Construction of the Albanian side began in 2007 and that of the Kosovo side in 2010. After both motorways were completed in 2010 and 2013 respectively, travel times have been lowered to two and a half hours or less, down from seven.