Talks on modernization of Belgrade-Budapest railway

Talks on modernization of Belgrade-Budapest railway

BELGRADE -- Contracting Serbian firms for a project to modernize the Belgrade-Budapest railway is "one of the priorities for the Serbian economy."

This is according to General Director of Serbian Railways Dragoljub Simonović,on Thursday met with representatives of China Exim Bank and Hungarian State Railways (MAV).

“We are considering various options, and given the importance of the project that that will take an investment of about 1.5 billion euros, it is vital that the decision about it is made by Serbia and China governments first,” Simonović said at the meeting of a trilateral working group.

The meeting discussed technical issues, and the Chinese delegation was briefed about the current railway infrastructure on the Serbian part of the route, Serbian Railways said in a release.

As a Chinese state-owned bank, Exim Bank is aware of the potential and importance that the modernizing of the railway route has for Serbia and Hungary, said Gong Huihong, deputy general manager of Exim Bank Concessional Loan Department.

The joint participation of representatives of both countries in talks with Exim Bank is a good starting point, and I am confident that we are on the right track to project realization, she added.

Gong said that preparing a feasibility study for the part of the route from Belgrade to the border with Hungary is the basis for further talks.

The Belgrade-Subotica railway was built between 1882 and 1884, and the last overhaul was done in 1980. It is an electrified single-track railway of overall length of about 149 kilometers.

The project is the first in the list of priorities for railway...