China, Serbia, Hungary make progress on Budapest-Belgrade railway deal

BELGRADE - Further progress was made in realization of the project for the modernization of the Budapest-Belgrade railway, the Serbian Ministry of Transport, Construction and Infrastructure said in a press release here on Friday.

The release was issued after the fifth meeting of the Trilateral Group of China, Serbia and Hungary was held here on Friday.

The meeting was chaired by Serbian Minister of Construction, Infrastructure and Transport Zorana Mihajlovic, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and Wang Xiaotao, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission of China (NDRC).

According to the release, representatives of China, Serbia and Hungary agreed to finish the preliminary design of the first segment of the planned high-speed railway between Belgrade and Stara Pazova (around 40 kilometers) by the end of September and continue talks on finalization of the commercial contract in October.

The ministry also stated that the "technical working group of all three countries worked today on reaching agreement on technical and technological issues related to the railway line", because this line will be designed for electrified passenger and cargo trains with a maximum speed of 200 km per hour.

The railway linking Budapest and Belgrade, has a total length of 350 km, of which 184 km is in Serbia.

The project for the modernization of the Belgrade-Budapest railway was initially agreed on in 2013 at the China-Central and Eastern European countries leaders' meeting in Bucharest.