Two tracks in three stages – Construction of Belgrade-Budapest railway to start in second half of 2017

Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlovic signed the commercial agreement on the construction of the first section of the high-speed Belgrade-Budapest railway and the Memorandum on financing the project on the territory of Serbia. The contract is worth USD 319 million and pertains to the first stage of the project, the one concerning the section from Belgrade to Stara Pazova, which is to be carried out by a Chinese company.

The signing of the commercial contract enables the construction of the railway for speeds up to 200 km/h to begin. China is interested in this route because of the transport of goods from the Port of Piraeus to Central Europe.

Minister Mihajlovic expects the construction to begin in the second half of 2017.

The construction of the railway will be carried out in three stages. The first one is from Belgrade to Stara Pazova (30 km), to be performed by the Chinese. The second is from Stara Pazova to Novi Sad, to be built by the loan from Russia’s RZD, and the third stage (107 km), from Novi Sad to Subotica, is still being negotiated about with the Chinese.

– We now have a one-track railway. The idea is to build an additional track to transfer the traffic from the old one, and then to reconstruct the old one and build a two-track railway for speeds up to 200 km/h – says Milutin Ignjatovic of CIP.

The company Zeleznice Infrastruktura says that the route will enable the local and foreign economies to connect.

– Serbia stands to gain a lot by building this railway. For example, the trip to Budapest, currently taking up to eight hours, will be shortened to only three hours. The railway will be completed within 36 months of the beginning of the construction – said Dusan Garibovic, director of Zeleznice Infrastruktura.

Freight trains will be able to run at high speeds down this railway as well and will no longer have to be crossed at certain smaller stations thanks to the two-track railway.

Ministarstvo građevinarstva, saobraćaja i infrastrukture Republike Srbije

RZD International Beograd

Infrastruktura Železnice Srbije Beograd

Ministry of Construction Transport and Infrastructure

Zorana Mihajlovic

Belgrade Budapest railway

Port of Piraeus

Milutin Ignjatovic

CIP

Dusan Garibovic

Zeleznice Infrastruktura