February 9 (SeeNews) - Hungary's national development minister Miklos Sesztak said on Friday the country expects to receive bids for the overhaul of the 152 km Hungarian section of the railway line linking Budapest with the Serbian capital Belgrade in March.
The opening of three new border crossings will significantly contribute to the improvement of the links between the two countries, and the first of them is the Rastina-Bacsentergi pass where the works have already been completed, Szesztak said during a meeting with Serbia's infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic, as quoted in a statement by the Serbian government.
More than thirty companies have expressed interest in bidding for the overhaul of the railway line on Hungarian territory, news agency MTI quoted on Friday the foreign minister Peter Szijjarto as saying.
Hungary's state-run railway operator MAV said November it opened a tender for the overhaul of the railway line. The project envisages the upgrade of the railway line connecting Soroksar, in the outskirts of Budapest, to Kelebia, on the border with Serbia, to a design speed of 200 km/h, under the specifications of the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T), MAV said at the time.
Serbia launched the project for the overhaul of the Belgrade-Stara Pazova section of the railway line connecting Belgrade to Budapest in November. The overhaul represents the first cross-border project carried out by Serbia, Hungary and China in the framework of the China-Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) cooperation initiative, the Serbian government said.
The Serbian government said in November it plans to invest $350.1 million (286.1 million euro) in the project. The upgrade of the 34.5 km-long railway section will be carried out by China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) and China Railways International (CRI).
($=0.8169 euro)