Serbia to start Belgrade-Nis railway overhaul in 2025

Vesic gave no further details of the project in a statement issued by the transport ministry earlier this week.

Yet, local news agency Tanjug quoted him as saying that the Belgrade-Nis railway overhaul will be completed by the end of 2028.

According to Tanjug, Vesic said that the transport ministry has issued a call for expression of interest in supervising the works on the railway overhaul, which marks the start of a tender procedure for choosing a construction supervisor for the project.

Works will be carried out in three stages at three separate sections of the line. The prequalification tenders for constructors of the second and third sections will be called in May, while the prequalification tender for a contractor for the first stage will be called in November at the latest, Vesic was quoted as saying.

In March 2023, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Union provided Serbia with a 2.2 billion euro ($2.4 billion) financial package for the reconstruction and modernisation of the Belgrade-Nis railway line. According to a June 2022 estimate of the EIB, the total cost of the project is seen at 2.78 billion euro.

Following the overhaul, a train will travel the 230 km distance between Belgrade and Nis in an hour and 40 minutes instead of the current six hours.

The Belgrade-Nis railway line forms part of Pan-European Corridor X connecting central Europe to Greece's Aegean port of Thessaloniki and is included in the EU’s Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans. It also links Belgrade to the Bulgarian capital Sofia at Dimitrovgrad border crossing.

In November, Vesic said that Serbia held talks with Bulgaria over the high-speed rail link connecting Nis to Sofia, adding that Bulgaria was already working on a link from Sofia towards the Serbian border. Also in November, Serbia started the overhaul of the 100-km railway line linking Nis to Dimitrovgrad, on the border with Bulgaria.

($ = 0.920 euro)