July 24 (SeeNews) - Russia's RZD International is interested in the reconstruction of more Serbian sections of the railway line linking Belgrade to the Montenegrin port of Bar, the director of the company's unit in Serbia, Mansurbek Sultanov, said on Wednesday.
RZD International is preparing the required documents to participate in the overhaul of the railway section linking Uzice to the Montenegrin border, Sultanov said in a video file posted on the website of Serbian public broadcaster RTS.
"We already have a completed section to Valjevo, but the most critical part is the section through Zlatibor and further to the border with Montenegro. There is not much room to change the route as with the railroad to Budapest. Modern and secure infrastructure, new contact network and signalisation is needed to reach the designed speed," Sultanov said.
RZD International completed the overhaul of the Resnik-Valjevo section of the railway line, in Serbia, on November 14. A total of $79.9 million (71.7 million euro) was invested in the project.
According to Russian media reports, Russia's government plans to extend a credit line to Serbia next year in order to finance railway projects worth a total of 230 million euro in the Balkan country. The credit line will finance 70% of the cost of the projects, while the remainder will be contributed by the Serbian government.
In January, Serbia's state-owned railway infrastructure company Infrastruktura Zeleznice Srbije signed a 230 million euro agreement with RZD International for expansion and modernisation of the railway network.
The deal between Infrastruktura Zeleznice Srbije and the Russian company envisages the design and implementation of three projects - electrification of the Stara Pazova - Novi Sad railway section,construction of a modern dispatch centre, as well as continuing with the overhaul of the section from Valjevo to Uzice, part of the railway line linking Belgrade to the port of Bar.
($ = 0.8974 euro)