May 29 (SeeNews) - Serbia's infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic said on Tuesday that Italian companies are interested in participating in the project for the overhaul of the railway section of European transport Corridor XI linking Belgrade to Montenegro's port of Bar.
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 a press release.
"Serbia has already reconstructed 77.6 kilometres of the railway line, from Resnik to Valjevo," Mihajlovic said during a meeting with Giovanni Rocca, Vice President Promotion of International Activities at Italian state-owned railway operator Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane held on the sidelines of the "Building together: Italy, Serbia and Montenegro" conference taking place in Belgrade.
Pan-European Corridor XI is a planned ferry/motorway corridor linking Italy's Bari to Romania's Bucharest via Bar and Belgrade.
The reconstruction of the railway line in Serbia is among the business opportunities that attract the interest of Italian companies, Mihajlovic said on the sidelines of the conference, according to a video file posted on the website of Serbian news agency Tanjug.
Any support regarding the installation of new technologies and telecommunication networks linked to the railway infrastructure is very important for Serbia, Mihajlovic said.
Russia's RZD International completed the overhaul of the Resnik-Valjevo section of the railway line, in Serbia, on November 14. A total of $79.9 million (92.2 million euro) was invested in the project.
($ = 0.866795 euro)