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Budapest-Belgrade rail upgrade could be started in 2015

Xinhua, July 16, 2015 Adjust font size:

Construction of a Budapest-Belgrade rail upgrade could get underway before the end of the year, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto told a Budapest news conference following a meeting of the Hungarian-Serbian-Chinese working group in Budapest on Thursday.

Also attending the meeting were Dejan Trifunovic, State Secretary for the Ministry of Construction, Transportation and Infrastructure of Serbia and Wang Xiaotao, Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission of China.

China is prepared to offer financing for the upgrade, Szijjarto said, and will submit its offer by Aug. 15. A Hungarian-Chinese intergovernmental accord and a financing accord are set to be signed before Oct. 31 of this year, he added.

Szijjarto said that the investment would include building dual tracks along the entire route and electrifying it, and the construction time was estimated to be two to two and a half years. The investment costs of the Hungarian section will be 472 billion forints ( 1 U.S. dollar equals to 283.27 forints), he said.

Trifunovic called the cooperation project of the three countries a good one, adding that they had reached agreement on all current issues. Serbia is receiving a great deal of political support for its share of the project, he added.

Wang agreed that the Budapest meeting had been a success and said that the group's next scheduled meeting would be in Beijing. The group appears able to reach a consensus, he added, which means that the project can be implemented.

The upgrade is connected to China's "Belt and Road" initiative, aimed at boosting trade with Europe. An overhauled rail line would speed up the land transport of Chinese goods from the Greek harbor of Piraeus to the heart of Europe.

Another goal is to expedite passenger transport between the two cities, cutting travel time to 2.5-3 hours over the 374 km route, 166 of which is in Hungary. Trains would be able to travel at 160 km/hour on the upgraded line. With the upgrades freight cars with even the heaviest axle weight will be able to run safely along the line.

The project for the modernization of the Belgrade-Budapest rail was initially agreed on in 2013 at the China-Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries leaders' meeting in Bucharest. The cooperation plan for its construction was signed in the beginning of this year in Belgrade at the meeting of the working group of China, Hungary and Serbia. (1 U.S. dollar = 283.27 forints) Endit