OREANDA-NEWS. July 18, 2014. Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, made a working visit to Serbia.

During the visit, a meeting took place between Vladimir Yakunin and Tomislav Nikolic, President of the Republic of Serbia. The sides discussed the implementation of the project now being carried out in Serbia under an intergovernmental agreement and contract between RZD International LLC, a subsidiary of Russian Railways which implements the Russian Railways holding company's overseas infrastructure projects, and JSC Serbian Railways on the construction of railway infrastructure and the supply of diesel trains.

During the meeting, the President of Serbia expressed satisfaction with the construction and in addition confirmed his readiness to assist the railway companies in operational matters relating to the project's implementation.

Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, visited the railway infrastructure construction sites together with Zoran Mikhailovich, Minister of Transport of the Republic of Serbia, Dragoljub Simonovic, Managing Director of Serbian Railways, Sergei Pavlov, Managing Director of RZD International and representatives of contractors

During his inspection of the construction work, Vladimir Yakunin said:

"The project is a little ahead of schedule. Everyone involved, including the railways, our subsidiaries and Serbian contractors, is set on performing this work in accordance with the signed contract on schedule and with good quality."

In 2013 January, an agreement was signed in Moscow to grant a Russian state export credit of USD800 million to the Republic of Serbia for the modernisation of Serbian Railways. The total cost of the infrastructure projects is about USD940 million. Serbia will thus finance about 15% of the total work.

The contract between the RZD International LLC and Serbian Railways envisages the construction and electrification of 15 km of the second track on the Belgrade – Pancevo railway line, the reconstruction of six pan-European Corridor sections with a total length of 112 km, the reconstruction of the existing and construction of a new 44-km second track on the stretch on the railway line Stara Pazova – Novi Sad and the reconstruction of the 200-km Serbian section of railway line Belgrade – Bar, as well as the supply of diesel trains produced by OJSC Metrovagonmash in Russia.