Photo: Infrastruktura železnica SrbijeThe Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure has issued a building permit for the construction of a station building at the “Belgrade Center” railway station, better known as “Prokop”. The financier and partner of the state in the construction of the station building and commercial facilities in the main railway station is the company “Railway City”, which informs this newspaper that the works will be completed by the end of 2023.
The station building on “Prokop” will cover 5,650 square meters, and the estimated value of the works, as stated in the decision on the issuance of the construction permit, amounts to 1.77 billion dinars without VAT.
“According to the agreed dynamic plan, the building of the station building will be completed by the end of 2023, after which it is planned to equip it and put it into operation,” the company “Railway City” stated.
The contract with the company “Railway City” was signed in the second half of 2020, based on the invitation of the Republic of Serbia from 2019 for partnership in the completion of the construction of the “Belgrade Center” railway station, according to ekapija.com.
That contract provided for the state to invest land and enable construction on already built facilities and all plots in its ownership at the railway station, and for a private partner (a company owned by businessman Branislav Grujić) to build the station building, commercial facilities and parking lots.
The contract, which soon came under the scrutiny of “Transparency Serbia”, provided for a phased construction, namely that the station building and part of the parking space would be built in the first phase. The partner also undertook to finance the construction of the station building in accordance with the construction permit, while the construction of other facilities will be in accordance with the market and business policy of the partner.
“Prokop” railway station has been under construction for 45 years. It took over the function of the main railway station in 2018, when the station on Sava Square, in the city center, was closed due to the construction of the “Belgrade on Water” project.
In “Prokop”, the station platforms and the approach to the building from Bulevar Knez Aleksandar Karađorđević have been arranged, while the station building and the approach to the building from the highway Belgrade – Niš have not yet been built.
According to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, the private partner should start the construction of the station building on August 8, while there are no announcements about the construction of access to the highway, although the state included that project in the list of capital priority projects last year.
The main railway station, by all accounts, will not be connected to the Belgrade metro in the near future either, since the conceptual design does not envisage that neither the first nor the second lines will pass through “Prokop”, which, at least according to the promises of the authorities, should be completed by 2030 year. The connection with “Prokop” is foreseen only after the construction of the third line.
The citizens’ association “Po meri metro” tried, during the public review of the Plan for the General Regulation of Rail Systems, to make sure that the first line of the metro passes through “Prokop”, but such an initiative was not heard by the authorities.
However, in May of this year, President Vučić told the Minister of Infrastructure Tomislav Momirović to try to find a solution for the metro to be immediately connected to the “Prokop” railway station.
Momirović said in June, during his visit to France, that the Belgrade metro will not be completely completed if it is not connected to “Prokop”.
Source: ekapija.com
Photo: Infrastruktura železnica Srbije
