Serbia's Belgrade to launch metro construction in Dec 2021 - deputy mayor

"France's Alstom will work on electromechanics, trains, railcars, rails, complete power supply, i.e. the equipment of the subway itself, while the construction works will be done by China's Power Construction Corporation (Powerchina). The ratio will be 30% to 70%. About 70% of the value of the work will belong to the Chinese, and the rest will be done by the French," Vesic said in a statement.

The French government has ensured financing for the part of the project which will be implemented by Alstom, while the Chinese government will provide funding for the works to be done by Powerchina, Vesic said.

"I have never seen someone giving such profitable financing conditions as the French did, in order to allow Alstom to do the job," he noted.

The structure of the project was defined in a draft contract agreed by Serbian finance minister Sinisa Mali with the ambassadors of France and China to Serbia, which is subject to approval by the governments of the three countries, Vesic noted.

According to the preliminary design of the project, the Belgrade metro network will initially consist of two lines - of 22 km and 19.8 km in length, respectively - and will also integrate four urban railway lines.

"French company Egis is currently working on the design of the first two metro lines, which means that we will have a feasibility study with a project for a building permit, and conceptual solutions are being developed for a third metro line," Vesic said.

The first line of the metro will run along the Sava river, crossing downtown Belgrade, and will link the Makisko Polje area in the southwestern part of the Serbian capital to the Mirijevo neighbourhood in the northeast, near the Danube river. The second line will connect Zemun, a northwestern suburb of Belgrade, to the Mirijevo neighbourhood through the New Belgrade urban municipality.

($ = 0.850751 euro)