Vučić: We will test vehicles at the highest speeds in the history of Serbia VIDEO
President Aleksandar Vučić attends ceremony of connecting the railway track on the section Stara Pazova-Novi Sad on the viaduct in the floodplain of the Danube.
Source: B92, Tanjug
"This is another face of Serbia, another country", Vučić claims.
"Everything is different, this changes everything. Here, people have forgotten how to use trains, this is an incredible beauty," the president said.
According to him, the testing of the railway will start soon, and it will start from the Belgrade-Batajnica route. We will have top Swiss trains, but also service in them, he adds. "The first double-decker arrives by the end of October, and the others in February. We are renovating all the stations, they are all new, these are almost abnormal changes," he said.
"People laugh when they hear that this is better than in Switzerland, but it is better than in Switzerland. We are ashamed of ourselves and our successes," Vucic said. Today, he says, he is really proud to be able to say a big "thank you" to all the partners who participated in the construction.
"I am happy that people will be able to choose whether to drive 200 or 120-130 kilometers per hour," he said. He wished the employees many transported passengers and goods, and said that a big job on the most beautiful part of the railway from Belgrade to the border with Hungary is coming to an end, and that in six months, citizens will be able to ride a completely new high-speed railway from Belgrade to Novi Sad.
"In six months, let's ride together, Your Excellency, and let's measure how far we can get," Vucic said during his address.
He specified that everything will be finished by December, and then the testing of vehicles at the highest speeds in the history of Serbia will take place.
First train by the end of October
He added that Serbia has lost a lot since the King Milan, since 1878, when the construction of the railway began, and that the time has come to do things that will connect us with Europe, the modern world.
Answering the questions of the journalists, the president said that the vehicles would travel five times faster than in the time of the King Milan, and that he was sorry that no one had tried to build such a railway before. "It is easiest for those, as in the time of the King Milan, who say that we do not need a railway, that we do not need vaccines...", he believes.
After connecting the tracks on that section, Vučić said that not only is the nature beautiful, a magnificent view of the Danube, but all the buildings were magnificent - a gallery, a viaduct, a tunnel... "It's something we don't have, we never dreamed we would have in Serbia. We usually try to find and say something bad, because it's easier to criticize than to say nice things. But I'm proud to be here and say just a big thank you to RZD, our Russian friends, Russian and Serbian builders", said Vučić.
He says that the job of the state of Serbia is to pay for that, which it does.
The Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Tomislav Momirović, assessed that the viaduct is "the largest and most beautiful in Europe".
"I think that people from the entire region will come here just to drive from Belgrade to Novi Sad," Momirovic said.
It should be reminded that earlier in the day, on the eve of the mentioned ceremony, Vučić met with representatives of the Russian company RZD International in Cortanovci. The meeting was attended by the Ambassador of Russia to Serbia, Aleksandar Botsan-Kharchenko, the General Director of RZD, Oleg Belozyorov, the Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Tomislav Momirovic, and the President of the Provincial Government, Igor Mirovic.
The railway is more than 180 kilometers long
The section Stara Pazova-Novi Sad is part of the new high-speed railway Belgrade-Budapest.
The total value of the construction of the Belgrade-Budapest railway through Serbia is about two billion dollars, and the railway through our country will be about 184 kilometers long. The project was agreed between Serbia, China and Hungary as part of China's global Belt and Road initiative.
In addition, President Vučić emphasized today that it is very important to continue the railway from Valjevo to Kosjerić, Užice, Priboj, Prijepolje... "Because Kosjeric will not have a highway, and Kosjeric must live, Priboj will not have a highway either," he explained. That means, he adds, that it will be possible to reach Uzice in less than three hours.
"It is true that we have a big job ahead of us," he said.
New joint projects with Russian Railways (RZD)
RZD Director General Oleg Belozyorov stated that a similar project does not exist in the entire Balkan region.
"Together, we were moving towards this achievement. We did not stop the works for a single day," he emphasized and announced that new joint projects await them in the future. President Vučić confirmed that there will be many more years of cooperation with the Russian Railways, which is building the railway from Stara Pazova to Novi Sad.
When asked by the representatives of RZD what are the plans for further cooperation and actions, after the completion of the work on the section Stara Pazova - Novi Sad, Vučić pointed out that negotiations on the construction of a single dispatch center in Makiš have started.
He explained that there will be regional dispatch centers in Novi Sad, Belgrade, Nis and Pozega, which will connect the entire system, guarantee 100% safety and manage the best national railway with insight into every movement at all times. He said that he expects that an agreement with RZD will be reached soon. He also stated that, in accordance with the loan of 230 million dollars, negotiations began on the Valjevo-Vrbnica railway, on the Montenegrin border.
"We expect the signing of a contract for 210 kilometers of railway throughout western Serbia. We expect the signing by the end of the year," he explained. Vučić said that he expects many more years of work and successful cooperation with RZD. He invited journalists to look at the tunnels and viaducts built by RZD and see how Serbia looks different today.
Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko said that today's event was historic. "What Minister Momirović said is also very important, and that is that the locals see progress every day," said the ambassador. He pointed out that the project "completely fits" into the idea of Serbia's development and relations with Europe and Russia.
"Improving infrastructure is one of the pillars of improving regional relations," Botsan-Kharchenko concluded.
