Director General of “Serbian Railways”, Milovan Markovic, and Managing Director in charge of the Infrastructure and Transportation sector at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Tomas Maier, signed the Loan Agreement in the amount of €95 million on 27 January in Belgrade.
Agreement on guaranatees of the State for this loan with the representative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development was signed by the state secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Dusan Nikezic.
The signing of the Loan Agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development represent the continuation of our successfull cooperation. In this way we provide funds for realization of infrastructure projects, which are extreamly significant for „Serbian Railways“, and with full support of the Serbian Government and relevant ministries we are beginning this year with continuation of modernization projects and reforms of this traffic system- pointed out Director General of „Serbian Railways“ Milovan Markovic on the occasion of €95 million worth contract signing.
These funds will be used for modernization of the railway Beograd-Rakovica-Resnik, as well as for the reconstruction and modernization of total 131km long railway line on the international railway Corridor 10.
Because of bad condition of railway infrastructure the average speed of international trains from Belgrade to Montenegro, Bulgaria and Macedonia on the section between Rakovica and Resnik is only 30 km/h. Due to EBRD funds this double track section will be reconstructed and modernized, so that bottleneck in Belgrade railway network can also be removed, and passenger and freight traffic can be set on designed level, which will significantly enhance the quality of the railway service in international traffic. At the same time, there will be possibility to extend the route of the new means of transportation in the capital, “BG voz”, which has already proved its reliability, efficiency and quality, to Rakovica and Resnik, as it was announced in cooperation with the City of Belgrade – said Director General of “Serbian Railways” Milovan Markovic and continued:
At the same time, on the Corridor 10 southern railway branch, from Belgrade towards Nis, construction and electro-technical infrastructure on several sections will be reconstructed and due to EBRD loan all the necessary equipment and mechanization will be provided. There will be construction works on the sections between Jajinci and Mala Krsna, as well as at the railway station Mala Krsna, than Lapovo-Bagrdan, Cicevac-Stalac and Stalac-Djunis, and the slow drives will be regulated, which makes today railway traffic on the Corridor 10 very slow and difficult – said Mr. Markovic and announced the beginning of the construction works on this objects in autumn 2012.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is a long-term partner of „Serbian Railways“ and today we have signed our fifth investment project aimed at modernizing rail infrastructure in Serbia and promoting further reform in the sector. This new project will improve the quality of rail services in the country and will further support transformation of Serbian Railways into a modern, commercially viable holding company- said Thomas Maier, EBRD Managing Director for Transport and Infrastructure.
Contract signing ceremony was attended by Infrastructure Minister Assistant Dejan Lasica, Director of European Bank for Reconstructure and Development for Serbia Hildegard Gacek, assembly chair man of JSC „Serbian Railways“ and management of Serbian Railways.
