Work has started on adding a second track to the railway line between Belgrade and Pancevo. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlovic announced that the modernisation of the 15 km long railway will be completed ahead of time, in July or August 2016.

Mihajlovic, who together with President of the Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin visited the construction site at at the Krnjaca railway station recalled that this railway is being modernised with the funds of the Russian loan worth USD 800 million.

She explained that after modernisation ,trains will be able to operate at speeds of 120km/h, and stressed that the objective is to make this an average speed on the Serbian railway network. Mihajlovic added that works on three more railway sections, totaling 63 km are to begin in February and last for a year and a half.

Russian Railways signed two additional contracts with the Serbian CIP institute, with whom they will carry out works on the Belgrade-Novi Sad section and it is expected that the plan for this section will be completely fulfilled.

Belgrade-Pancevo railway line modernisation is the first project from the Russian state loan. The total value of works is USD 91 million, of which USD 78 million is from the Russian loan, while USD 13 million, or 15% of the value of the loan, is provided by the state of Serbia in the form of the down payment.

The contractor is Russian company RŽD International, founded by Russian Railways, which is in charge of the Russian loan for modernisation of railways in Serbia.