BELGRADE (Serbia), September 4 (SeeNews) – Serbia has officially opened for rail traffic the Zezelj bridge across the Danube in Novi Sad, in the north of the country, the country's infrastructure ministry said.
Serbia invested a total of 57.2 million euro ($66.1 million) in the construction of the bridge, including a 25.4 million euro financing from the European Union (EU), 22 million euro from the budget of the autonomous province of Vojvodina and 9.8 million euro from the central government budget, the infrastructure ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
The bridge was constructed by a consortium of Spanish companies Azvi and Horta Coslada, as well as Italy's Taddei, the infrastructure ministry said.
The 474-metre Zezelj bridge features two railway lines, two road lanes and two lanes designed for pedestrians and cyclists. The new bridge will replace one destroyed in a NATO air raid against Serbia in 1999.
The Zezelj bridge is part of Pan-European Corridor X which will connect Salzburg in Austria to the Greek port of Thessaloniki, passing through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia. In Serbia, the project includes the construction of the Belgrade bypass motorway, as well as two separate sections, linking Nis to Levosoje, near the border with Macedonia, to the south, and to the border with Bulgaria to the east.
($ = 0.8649 euro)