Russian Railways has opened a regional information and training center at the Serbian Railways Head Office on 10 November 2020 in Belgrade.
The ceremony was attended by the Serbian Minister of Construction, Transport, Infrastructure, Tomislav Momirović, Acting General Director of Serbian Railways Infrastructure, Nebojsa Surlan, the First Deputy Managing Director of RZD, Sergey Pavlov, the Russia’s Ambassador to Serbia, Alexander Botan-Kharchenko, and Director of RZD International branch office in Serbia Mansurbek Sultanov as well as the Head of the Scientific and Educational Institute for Automation and Telecommunications NIIAS, Andrei Pavloski.
Minister Momirovic said that it was a great pleasure to cooperate with Russian friends from RZD International, and that we have finished some serious project in the past and that great challenges are still ahead us.
-“ RZD” is a strategic company, perhaps the greatest railway company in the world and I am convinced that in the future we will have a very good cooperation” – said Mr. Momirovic.
– The Russian railways project is a comprehensive and long-term project. It is not only about high speed railway line and necessary infrastructure construction, but also about preparation and training of staff for a long period of our cooperation and development of Russian railways projects in Serbia – said the Russian Ambassador to Serbia, Alexander Botan-Kharchenko.
The First Deputy Managing Director of RZD, Sergey Pavlov pointed out that all this wouldn’t be possible without great cooperation and joint effort and support of the Serbian Government.
Director of RZD International branch office in Serbia Mansurbek Sultanov presented all the projects on railway infrastructure modernization the Russian company has had in Serbia so far, as well as the current projects and planned projects.
The information and training center has equipment and modern technologies, which the Russian railways will use to build the unique dispatch center to control the train traffic in Serbia. The unique dispatch center will be located at the Belgrade Ranžirna railway station in Makiš and it will enable a new technological level of control and planning of passenger and freight railway traffic in Serbia.
The planned funds for this project are EUR 120 million, of which EUR 9.48 million has been set aside for design. The financing was provided from a new Russian loan for the modernization of Serbian railways, which is EUR 230 million worth, including participation from the budget of the Republic of Serbia.