DJILAS: Construction of metro starts in late 2012

(Dragan Djilas)

Belgrade Mayor Dragan Djilas stated yesterday (June 30, 2010) that construction of the metro in Belgrade may start in late 2012 or early 2013. He also expressed belief that the construction could be finished in about ten years.

The City Parliament of Belgrade adopted the information yesterday, with the majority of votes, on making of the "Belgrade Metro - Base for Selection of Solution" document, which would define basic requirements for the construction.

- This is the first operative decision in the defined series of events leading to construction of the metro - said City Parliament Chairman Aleksandar Antić.

Assessing that the City Parliament made a historical decision, Mayor Djilas said that the Belgrade metro would be an independent railway system, and not a "modern tram", Beoinfo wrote.

- That system will not have intersections with other road traffic routes, which is a guarantee that it will be the real metro. It will go above the ground wherever possible since it is three times cheaper than construction works under the ground, but it will not intersect with traffic routes, while it will have to go below the ground in the city center - Djilas explained.

The Mayor said that the capacity and the type of the metro, its source of power supply, number of cars, stops and platforms, as well as everything else, should be defined in the study made by one of the French companies with the experience in building and maintaining such transport systems. The study should be financed from the donation of the Government of France.

- In addition to domestic studies, we have also got the results of the analyses performed for free by experts from Vienna, Munich, Canada, and Spain, who all agreed that Belgrade needed metro to solve the traffic problems - the Mayor pointed out.

- If the City's negotiations on the donation for the study go as planned, a proposal for the look of the metro may be finished within next six to nine months - said Djilas.

- I think that there is no doubt any more that two top-priority routes are Zemun-New Belgrade-Ustanicka Street and Karaburma-Banovo Brdo-Vidikovac - said Mayor.

However, he added that that issue had divided the opinions, as well as the issues concerning whether a bridge should be built across the Sava, next to the bridge in Brankova Street, exclusively for the metro, or it should also be a road bridge leading to Nemanjina Street, and whether the main station should be at Republic Square or at Nikole Pasica Square.

Djilas added that the decision on the way of funding the construction - loan, concession, or their combination - would be made as soon as the study was done.

- Metro needs to be built for tens of years and it is the project that never ends - said the Mayor of Belgrade.