Russians to build Prokop – Belgrade’s rail junction to be finally completed by means of Russian loan

Railway station "Beograd - Centar" in Prokop may be finished within next three years. New hope that the works on Belgrade’s rail junction will finally start has been given by the representatives of Russian Federation who participate in the three-day meeting of Serbian-Russian Traffic Cooperation Council, which is being held in the capital city of Serbia.

According to the Deputy Minister of Transportation of Russia, Nikolaj Ljamov, Russia is considering the possibility of granting national loan of 200m EUR to Serbian railways for modernization and completion of Belgrade’s rail junction.

Concrete agreement on the loan of Russian Federation may be signed already on October 20th, on the occasion of the visit of the President of Russia, Dmitrij Medvedev, to Belgrade. Preparations for the visit are already in progress, and the experts from the two countries already had three meetings the last month.

- The loan has not been approved yet, but we are going to prepare the material for infrastructural traffic projects during our three-day stay in Serbia, so that it should be ready for the meeting of the presidents of Serbia and Russia – said Ljamov.

At the suggestion of "Serbian Railways", 110m EUR would be used for completion of the railway station in Prokop. According to the words of Predrag Janković, the Deputy CEO of "Serbian Railways", 26m EUR would be spent on construction of technical-passenger stations Zemun and Kijevo, 30m EUR on construction of cargo-transportation center in Makiš, and 34m EUR on construction of 15 kilometers of new, two-gage railway from Belgrade to Pančevo.

By the way, the Government of Serbia set aside 27.3m EUR for the new railway station in Belgrade in the action plan that was adopted in February 2009. But there is still no money for this project in the national budget, that is, the budget of the National Investment Plan.

Belgrade’s rail junction is being reconstructed and built for more than 50 years in various political, economic and technological-development conditions. The adopted concept of the junction is being realized through two systems: for freight transportation and for passenger transportation.

The freight system is based on switching station Belgrade - Ranžirna, in the Makiš field, and the freight bypass rails. In order for the central city zone to be freed from transportation of freight and dangerous matters, planning and construction of freight bypass rail Beli Potok - Vinča - Pančevo, with road-railway bridge across the Danube near Vinča, must be finished. In order for the passenger system of the junction to be put in operation, it is necessary that stations Belgrade - Center in Prokop, Zemun and Kijevo be put in operation as well.

Following the completion of station Belgrade - Center, commercial space at 128,000 square meters will be built on large concrete surface that covers rail gages. Once Prokop is finally completed, the main railway station will be moved to that location, and 80 ha of land in the very center of Belgrade, in the Sava amphitheater, will be made available.

COOPERATION IN TRANSPORTATION

In addition to modernization of the railway transportation, cooperation between Serbia and Russia in other fields of transportation is also possible – forming of new river port on the Danube on the territory of Belgrade, construction of subway in Belgrade, development of port infrastructure, construction of logistics center in Belgrade and cargo-logistics center at airport "Nikola Tesla"...

(Note: complete text is taken over from newspaper "Novosti" of October 2nd, 2009)