SERBIA: President Aleksandar Vučić officially launched construction of the 22·5 km Niš bypass railway with a ceremony on July 6.
The single-track electrified line designed for 120 km/h running will link Niš Ranžirna yard with Sićevo station on the line to Dimitrovgrad, bypassing the city centre.
The ceremony came after the €153·6m construction contract was signed on June 27 by infrastructure manager IŽS and a consortium of Extra Auto Transport and China Road & Bridge Corp.
Completion is expected to take 34 months.
The EU is providing €35m for the project, plus €80m for the ongoing modernisation of the Niš – Dimitrovgrad line.
IŽS CEO Jelena Tanasković said the bypass would solve a number of problems by removing trains form the city centre, increasing safety and providing more capacity for transit freight services.
