July 24 (SeeNews) - Serbia's government plans to launch an overhaul of the railway line linking Belgrade to Montenegro's port of Bar next year, infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic said.
The reconstruction of the railway line on Serbian territory will start next year and will be completed by the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021, Mihajlovic said during a meeting with Montenegrin transport minister Osman Nurkovic, according to a press release issued by the Serbian infrastructure ministry.
Montenegro has so far reconstructed 40% of the railway line on its territory and has ensured a funding of 70 million euro ($81.8 million) through loans and grants to continue the project, Nurkovic said in the statement.
"It is important that with the reconstruction of the railway line we are working on the removal of the so-called non-physical barriers, among other things, through the establishment of common border crossings, which we will have with Montenegro in Bijelo Polje, because it is unacceptable that freight trains wait for eight or more hours at the border," Mihajlovic said.
The Serbian government intends to launch the preparation of the technical documentation for the reconstruction of sections of the Belgrade-Bar railway line with a combined length of 200 kilometres by the end of 2018, Mihajlovic said in May.
($ = 0.855425 euro)