April 25 (SeeNews) - Serbia has signed an agreement with Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank) for the financing of the overhaul of the Novi Sad-Subotica section of the railway linking Belgrade to Hungary's Budapest, Serbia's infrastructure ministry said on Thursday.
"The technical documentation for the section is mostly prepared and we expect that works will start at the end of this year and will last for about two and a half years," infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic said, according to a press release issued by the ministry.
The deal was signed by Serbian finance minister Sinisa Mali on the sidelines of the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing in the presence of China's president Xi Jinping, the infrastructure ministry said.
Earlier this month, Mali said Serbia expects to sign a $1 billion (898 million euro) loan deal with China to finance the reconstruction of the Serbian railway network on April 25. The proceeds of the loan will be used to finance works on the Novi Sad-Subotica section of the railway line linking Belgrade with the Hungarian capital Budapest, Mali said back then.
In July 2018, Serbia signed a 943 million euro deal with China Railway International (CRI) and China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) for the overhaul of the 108 km-long Novi Sad-Subotica railway section.
CRI and CCCC are also the main contractors of the project for the overhaul of the Belgrade-Stara Pazova section of the Belgrade-Budapest railway, which is part of European transport Corridor X.
($ = 0.898158 euro)