“Serbian Railways” Director General, and authorized representative of the Italian Consortium “ITALIANA Construzioni” Bojan Starec signed on Monday, July 2 in Belgrade Agreement on construction works on new double tracks railway line from the Gilje halt to the station Paraćin.
-The new double track electrified line between Gilje and Paraćin will be constructed within modernization project of Gilje-Ćuprija-Paraćin line, on international railway Corridor X. Italian consortium had the most favorable offer on international tender, in which we received 15 bids from ten European countries, including domestic companies – said Serbian Railways director general Milovan Marković.
According to Marković’s words, the value of the contract is just under EUR 16.2 million, and funding was secured from the European Investment Bank loan.
The new double track electrified line will be 10.5 kilometers long and made for maximum speed of 160 kilometers per hour.
During the construction of the new line, it will be necessary to dig out 295 thousand cubic meters of material, to build it 648 thousand cubic meters of new material, 2.640 tons of rails, 33 thousand pieces of concrete sleepers, 64 thousand cubic meters of the new ballast stone and 18 new switches.
Marković reminded that the works on modernization of this section begun on February 2011, when building of the new double track railway bridge across Velika Morava started, near Ćuprija. The new bridge is a part of the new line and it represents the hardest part of the total works on construction of this section. The bridge is built on the uprooted part of the Gilje-Ćuprija-Paraćin railway line. The works are performed by Austrian-Slovenian consortium “Alpina-Meteorit”, and the new double track bridge should be built in 18 months, i.e. August 3 of this year. The construction of the new bridge is carried out according to the plan.
-We also have the selection of the most favorable offer for the performing the electro technical works on the modernization of the section Gilje-Ćuprija-Paraćin ahead of us, which implies the construction of the electrified double track line. It is envisaged that the construction and electro technical works should be done simultaneously – said Serbian Railways Director General.
-The deadline for the construction of the new double track is 415 days and we are confident that we will comply with that deadline, – said Bojan Starec, while expressing the satisfaction that Italian consortium is realizing such an important railway modernization project in Serbia.
Contract signing was attended by Assistant Minister for Infrastructure Dejan Lasica.
