Byzantine-blue Turks, new tolls, Karadjordje and subway boulevard – 2025 RETROSPECTIVE, investments in TRANSPORT

“We work, we work here!” roared head nurse Antonija in the “Happy People” TV series more than three decades ago. Around that time (a few years earlier), work began on the Belgrade bypass. The famous nurse Antonija and the bypass are still relevant today. The former because of her unforgettable lines, the latter because of the infamously long construction, the end of which is nowhere in sight. But both are undoubtedly inspiring topics in these three and more decades, nurse Antonija in anecdotes, the bypass because the story about it is updated year after year. Currently, that story is in Chapter C, which is still being written.

Some other traffic and infrastructure stories are slowly coming to an end, while others are getting unexpected twists and turns, especially those inspired by eastern Serbia. Some construction and traffic stories caused concern, some were for the “Believe it or not” column, such as the one about the Turkish Bozankaya, others for the “This battle ain’t over!” series. Whatever the case may be, the undeniable fact is that in the year behind us, stories and articles about traffic, new infrastructure projects, investments in the fleets of transport companies... were something that really attracted the attention of readers. So, “Hos geldiniz!” (“Welcome!” in Turkish) to this retrospective because the most read traffic story was...

Belgraders have been waiting for more than a decade for new trams to hit the streets of the capital city and replace some of the aging Czech “KT4” trams and the donated “Swiss” ones. They waited and waited, and then they welcomed the Turkish Bozankaya dressed in a Byzantine-blue uniform. But before they even officially took to the streets of Belgrade, it was determined that the Belgrade rails were a bit of a tight fit for these corpulent trams. The news and eKapija`s findings this year that the official start of traffic of these trams would be a bit of a “rough going” broke all expectations of the readership when it comes to transport and investment topics, and comments whose essence was “How could this happen during the ordering and awarding of the contract?” came flooding in. After numerous measurements, tests, playing with Styrofoam and other methods, it was determined that, although these trams are undeniably wider than any other in the GSP facilities, they will still be able to take to the streets. And the number of hits for this text, to be honest, should not be surprising if we know that everything related to the aforementioned tram purchase was lopsided and controversial from the start.

In the year behind us, unlike some previous ones, not many kilometers of new Serbian highways were opened. And those that were, were mostly kilometers that should have been opened to traffic a few years before. One of those sections is the meager 14 kilometers of the Morava Corridor from Vrnjacka Banja to Vrba, which were opened to traffic in 2025. Every new kilometer, especially on this, as the state calls it, “smart highway,” is significant, but it would be even more significant if the set deadlines, especially when it comes to such large projects, were respected and not broken. In the case of the Morava Corridor, whose construction began in 2019, everything, as announced at the time, was supposed to be finished in 2023. Alas, there are still about forty kilometers left until the corridor is complete.

With some topics, no matter how much they are on the agenda, it seems that the Belgrade and Serbian public can never get tired of them. One of such topics is the topic of the construction of the Belgrade Bypass, which has been current for more than three decades now. The traffic ring (or as nitpickers would say, it is not a ring since it is not a full circle, although they have been refuted in the meantime by the now definitely former Minister of Construction Goran Vesic, who once announced the design of section D and therefore the complete traffic ring of Belgrade)... So, the traffic (semi)ring around the capital reached Bubanj potok, or section C, a year ago and has stopped there for now. And it was the plans for Section C that attracted, as expected, the attention of the reading and traffic public this year, specifically the story about the award of the contract for the development of a spatial plan for that section. Expensive, demanding and quite long. In proportion to the length of this decades-long traffic and infrastructure story in sequels.

On many sections of future highways and motorways in Serbia, the first construction machines have not yet arrived, and it is a question of when they will, but the “preparatory work” in the form of exchanging “expert” opinions over keyboards is definitely ongoing. In this case, the story is about the construction of the Vozd Karadjordje expressway. Last autumn, Corridors of Serbia submitted a request to the Ministry of Environmental Protection for determining the scope and content of the environmental impact assessment study for sector 2 of this road, i.e. from Orasac to Cibutkovica, and that was enough to open a “constructive” discussion among commentator-minded readers about why the junctions and interchanges would be at those points and not at others, or why this expressway did not extend a little to Zajecar. Others dealt with the upcoming money laundering, but also with why the Turkish word “kara” (“black”) was being forced instead of the Serbian “crni” (same), and the story about this fast road to the east of the country also included a motorway in Tuscany. It seems that the vineyards of eastern Serbia and Italian Tuscany were the link. Although, the numerous commentators, inspired by the construction of the fast road to the east of the country, should not be blamed too much if it is known that in the past few years, state representatives have also been quite confusing when it comes to this road - so it was going to be a highway, then a motorway, then it was going to go to Bor, then not to this mining and smelting town - at least according to the most current plans. And then how can an average commentator inspired by civil engineering topics not be at their wits’ end after all this?

It’s a miracle that the residents of eastern Serbia trust anyone when it comes to projects and investments in this part of the country. Because, if anyone has heard the story about the arrival of large factories and the construction of important corridors, which in the end came to nothing, then it is them. Many have probably forgotten the announcements from more than 15 years ago that a highway would be built from Paracin via Zajecar to the Bulgarian border. It turns out that it is a story for the naive, because the argument was soon put forward that there was not enough traffic on that stretch, that there were not that many important investments that would require investment in a highway. The story of a modern road to the so-called appendix of Serbia was thus put aside indefinitely, only to be revived again recently, but this time in a somewhat more modest infrastructural form - the form of a fast road, with four lanes up to 100km/h. Therefore, it is not surprising that the now officially completed public review of the Draft Spatial Plan for the Special Purpose Area of the IB-Grade State Road Infrastructure Corridor Paracin-Zajecar-Negotin attracted a lot of attention from our readers.

Everyone has their own worry. Residents of the Timok and Negotinska Krajina regions are awaiting the construction of the first kilometers of a modern road, and residents of Uzice and Bajina Basta have been promised a fast road with the Kadinjaca tunnel for years. Someone might say: “What are they complaining about? At least there is a highway in the west.” But, if you look carefully at the road map of Serbia, you can clearly see that Uzice and Bajina Basta do not directly benefit from it, which is why it is not surprising that every new bit of information regarding the Kadinjaca tunnel arouses great attention and interest among the residents of Uzice and Bajina Basta.

The end of the year was marked by announced projects, but the beginning was marked by current ones. And, the progress of some of these works caused fear among citizens. One such news was the news about the construction of the Danube Corridor and the collapse of one of the overpasses on it. The Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Veliko Gradiste reacted quickly, indicating that there had been no collapse or demolition of any building, bridge or overpass at the construction site of the Pozarevac-Veliko Gradiste-Golubac expressway section, in the settlement of Djurakovo-Popovac. However, as a tragedy occurred at the railway station in Novi Sad a few weeks earlier, it cannot be said that the fear due to the news about the condition of the road under construction was not justified.

The state budget needs money, there is never enough of it, that is undeniable. But what is controversial for drivers, what caused them anger and bitterness in the autumn behind us (if we can judge by the representative sample of commentators), was precisely the announcement of the potential start of toll collection on main roads in the country, and not only on motorways. Truck drivers and bus operators, to whom this announcement primarily applied, were particularly resentful. The address to which they would, if they could, unload that anger from their tow truck or trunk, would be the Ministry of Finance, which proposed it.

For decades, Kragujevac has been bypassed by important roads, primarily highways, so perhaps it should not be surprising when any major road corridor whose construction is announced in this city of the automotive industry attracts enormous attention. No one is even talking about when the people of Kragujevac could possibly get a highway connection, so the construction of the Northern Bypass around this city is “nothing to sneeze at”. Towards the end of the year, the Ministry of Construction gave the green light to the Roads of Serbia company to continue work on the Northern Bypass, more precisely for the second phase of this expressway, and more specific announcements of the continuation of its construction attracted a lot of attention from the people of Kragujevac.

When the construction of a new boulevard in Belgrade or the reconstruction of an existing one is mentioned, every other Belgrader’s reaction is: “Oh, not again!” This reaction is not without reason if we remember the reconstruction of Patrijarha Pavla Boulevard, first of all, but also the “four boulevards” in Palilula and the Stari Grad municipality and other similar examples. But, no matter how well Belgraders know what the works on the capital’s boulevards entail - numerous deadline breaches, “unforeseen underground installations,” “unexpected conditions on the ground” - their attention to this topic still does not wane. Especially when this boulevard has to do with the Belgrade Subway, which has been awaited for decades. The start of construction of the six-kilometer-long “subway boulevard” from Zeleznik to Banovo Brdo was announced in the year behind us by Miroslav Cuckovic, the city manager. Since there was not much talk about it previously, and at the same time, this boulevard was announced as a road wider than the Milos Veliki highway, it is clear why this topic, although without many specific details about the new boulevard itself, was among the most read ones.