"Railway to go ahead as planned" despite Piraeus decision

"Railway to go ahead as planned" despite Piraeus decision

BELGRADE -- Serbia continues to work on the modernization of the Belgrade-Budapest railway and will start building it without delays by the end of this year.

The Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure announced that it a feasibility study for the project will be done by June, while construction works are expected to be launched in the last quarter of 2015.

It is pointed out that "activities on modernization of the Belgrade-Budapest railway have already started," considering that funds for individual sections have already been provided from a Russian loan.

Late last year China, Serbia, Hungary and Macedonia signed an agreement on the modernization of rail transport, with the intention to build the first high-speed line from Belgrade to Budapest, and then from Belgrade to Macedonia and on to Greece.

China is involved in the project because it wants to transport goods from Piraeus in Greece to the rest of Europe by rail.

But Greece's new government this week decided to halt the privatization of the port of Piraeus, causing concern in Serbia about the fate of the railway.

The previous government in Athens was planning to sell a 67 percent stake in the port. China's COSCO had expressed interest in the privatization. The company already has a 35-year concession to expand two largest container terminals.