BELGRADE (Serbia), July 16 (SeeNews) – France's government has signed a letter of intent to support the construction of a metro network in Belgrade, the Serbian government said.
The letter of intent, signed in the framework of the visit of French president Emmanuel Macron to Serbia, envisages negotiations on the possibility of concluding an intergovernmental agreement on the financing of the French part of the first phase of the project, the government said in a statement on Monday.
In 2011, Serbia signed a strategic partnership agreement with France on the metro network development project, which envisages the extension of a grant and the execution of pre-feasibility studies, which French urban engineering company Egis completed in May, the government said.
The pre-feasibility study prepared by the French company shows that the construction of the first line of the metro will cost 1.8 billion euro ($2 billion), while 2.2 billion euro will need to be invested in the second line.
In April, Serbia's government signed a cooperation agreement with China's Power Construction Corporation (Powerchina) for the project. Under the terms of the agreement, Serbia and Powerchina will commence joint work on project documentation, spatial plans and the model of financing for the Belgrade metro construction.
According to the design of the project, the metro network of Serbia's capital will consist of two lines, 22 kilometres and 19.8 kilometres in length respectively. The system will also integrate four urban rail lines.
($ = 0.889835 euro)