Interface Protocol and Contract as Precondition for Preparation of Documentation for Construction of Subway and Entire First Subway Line Signed

The Interface Protocol and the Contract on the Provision of Services, documents which concern the construction of the Belgrade Subway, were signed on Friday at the premises of the PUC Belgrade Metro and Train.

The Interface Protocol was signed between the Secretariat for Public Transport of the City of Belgrade, the PUC Belgrade Metro and Train as the procuring party, the French company Alstom as the consultant and the Chinese company PowerChina as the contractor. This protocol defines the mutual relations between PowerChina, which will execute the construction works, and Alstom, which will secure the delivery and installation of the transport systems – trains, signaling and telecommunications systems and tracks.

The director of the PUC Belgrade Metro and Train, Andreja Mladenovic, pointed out that “the aim is to establish a safe and efficient subway system in Belgrade, which will considerably improve the public transport, accessibility and mobility in our capital city.”

– It will also contribute to a more widely encompassing economic and technological development of the society. The construction of the Belgrade Subway is a long-term and complex project, for which cooperation and support of international partners, as well as their experience and knowledge, are of great importance – said Mladenovic.

Yang Fan of PowerChina said that the establishment of the embankment within the depot of the subway system in Makisko Polje was being brought to a close.

– This signing is important because these two documents will enable an easier shift to the next phase of the project – the construction works in Makis. To us, it is important that the project has been supported by the Government of Serbia and PowerChina will work hard to implement it – Fan pointed out.

The Contract on the Provision of Services was signed between the Secretariat for Public Transport, the PUC Belgrade Metro and Train on one side and Alstom on the other. With this contract, Alstom secures the input data and support to the contractor for the construction works on the Makis depot – the company PowerChina. Through this contract, Alstom will also prepare documentation concerning the subway system as a whole, which will be of importance primarily for the construction of the depot, and then also for the construction of the entire Line 1 of the subway. The contract will also be the preparation for the main contract, through which Alstom will carry out the designing, construction and commissioning of the transport systems of the Belgrade Subway.

Miodrag Jelisavcic, the director general for Serbia at Alstom, emphasized that the company “is present in Serbia for the past 10 years, and this is the first officially signed contract.”

– We hope that the contract on the first subway line will follow soon and that we will be present here when the subway is put into operation. We also hope that, through cooperation of the sides and partners, the challenges ahead of us will be overcome and that we will realize this project successfully – Jelisavcic said.

Let us remind that, at the end of January, the minister of finance, Sinisa Mali, announced that the construction of the depot for subway rail cars was to begin several weeks later. Before him, the president of the Temporary Organ of the City of Belgrade, Aleksandar Sapic, at the end of last year, said that the boring on the route of the first subway line would begin in 2024. At the beginning of December, he pointed out that the construction of a machine, popularly known as a “mole”, for the boring of that line had been commissioned. Previously, in November 2023, Sapic pointed out that concrete things on the construction of the subway system would become visible in the second half of 2024.

At the end of November, the agenda of the Temporary Organ of Belgrade included the decision on giving approval to the Secretariat for Utility and Housing and the Belgrade Land Development Public Agency for the signing of the agreement with the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure and Power Construction Corporation (PowerChina) on the regulation of the mutual rights and obligations regarding the designing and construction of the roads and public utility infrastructure in the Makisko Polje location, Phase I – lot 1 and lot 2.

When it comes to the deadlines for the construction of the first two subway lines, according to the current project, they have been extended for years. For several years, until relatively recently, the city and the state kept announcing that the first subway line would open for traffic in 2028 and the second in 2030. However, for some time now, this has been changed to say that the first two lines will be completed by 2030.

D. A.

Ministarstvo građevinarstva, saobraćaja i infrastrukture Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo finansija Republike Srbije

Sekretarijat za javni prevoz Beograd

JKP Beogradski metro i voz Beograd

Power Construction Corporation of China Limited Ogranak Beograd

Ogranak ALSTOM Transport SA Beograd

Ministry of Construction Transport and Infrastructure

Ministry of Finance

Alstom

Power Construction Corporation of China

PowerChina

PUC Belgrade Metro and Train

Secretariat for Public Transport of the City of Belgrade

Andreja Mladenović

Yang Fan

Miodrag Jelisavčić

Siniša Mali

Aleksandar Šapić