MRKONJIĆ: Whole amount of Russian loan to be spent on railways

(Milutin Mrkonjić)

- Negotiations on the infrastructure part of so-called Russian loan are underway and go as planned - Milutin Mrkonjić, the Minister of Infrastructure, told "Blic" (December 7, 2009).

He said that the sides had agreed on the annual interest rate of 3.6% and that the amount of the loan had not been increased, but remained at the level of 800m USD. All three projects concern the railway traffic, which proves the significance of railway Corridor 10.

- We are talking about the loan for construction of Belgrade's railway hub worth 450m EUR. That project includes completion of main railway station Prokop, loco-freight station in Kijev and Zemun, as well as freight station in Makiš. The second project that will be financed from that loan is construction of Valjevo-Loznica railway, which costs 150m EUR since half of that railway route has already been built. Finally, money from the Russian loan will also be spent on the modernization and electrification of Niš-Dimitrovgrad railway, which cost 100m EUR. Negotiations on all that are still in progress - says Minister Mrkonjić.