Prokop Gets Station Building, Completion of Features at Station Complex Continuing

At the main rail station in Belgrade, called Belgrade Center (Prokop), the station building has officially started working. Its construction was financed and carried out by Railway City, the state’s partner in completing the features in Prokop, and the building was finished slightly more than 14 months from the date its construction officially began. This rail hub is getting its station building nearly half a century since the first construction works began on that location and nearly five and a half years since it officially took over the role of the central rail station in the capital city from the former Main Rail Station in the Sava Amphitheater.

One of the final pre-conditions for its raising was the completion of the missing parts of the slab above the platform section (the so-called cote 105) at the Belgrade Center station, and also the testing of the slab’s load-bearing capacity. As part of the works, which, following the obtaining of the building permit, started at the beginning of August last year, the workers of the contractor PFB Beograd, as well as several subcontractors, had to remove the developed unnecessary parts on the slab itself and build the facility itself and the steel structure of the roof. In the second part of the works, which took place in the first, but also the second half of 2023, the focus was on the development of the glass façade with decorative sunbreakers and the development of the interior of the station building, which was done up until the very opening, parallel with the landscaping of the station plaza and the first part of the parking lot in Prokop.

The new station building has around 6,000 square meters and features commercial space, branch offices, a counter service, a waiting room, ticket vending machines… Initially, four of the planned eight counters will be available to the passengers. For now, the station complex has 100 places for the parking and stopping of vehicles, 12 escalators, 10 elevators and 13 commercial features. West of the station building, the plan is to build an aboveground garage with 568 parking places, with the possibility of expanding the capacity by an additional 96 places. Along the outer internal traffic route of the complex, the plan is to build 262 outdoor parking spaces, and the free areas between the facilities are designed as a green park, according to the official data.

– Over 20 planning and design studios and 40 constructors took place in the realization of the project, whereby, on average, there were more than 220 workers at the construction site every day – the Government of Serbia pointed out.

Opening ceremony on Belgrade Liberation Day

The opening ceremony was symbolically organized on Friday evening, October 20, the WW2 Belgrade Liberation Day. The president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, stated at the opening of the station building that, during his mandate, EUR 25 million had been invested in Prokop through Kuwaiti credits, EUR 61.2 million for various works between 2014 and 2022 and an additional EUR 15 million for the station building.

– This is not just the Belgrade rail station. It is important for this to be an incentive for us, and we are already building the Nis-Brestovac railroad toward Leskovac. We’re talking 23 kilometers, and the average speed will be 120 kilometers per hour – Vucic reminded.

As the president said, in addition to the construction of the fast railroad to Nis, the plan is for Serbia to make an agreement with the European Union about the construction of the railroad to Presevo, up to the border with North Macedonia.

– We hope that our Macedonian brothers will extend it further to Skopje and the Greek border, so that we can arrive fast there as well – Vucic said and reminded that, at that moment, 108 kilometers of the fast railroad between Novi Sad and Subotica was being built and that the railroad would be completed in 2024.

– I believe that a year, a year and a half from then, our Hungarian friends will also complete their part of the railway, allowing us to reach Budapest in two hours and 45 minutes. Four and a half hours to Vienna – estimated Vucic.

Construction of access routes to start in 2024?

Although the station building is officially completed in Prokop, the first and second tracks and the first platform, as well as the access routes to the station plaza from the direction of the highway, have not yet been built. The beginning of the construction of that traffic route has been announced for years, but the deadline for the beginning of the works has been extended on several occasions, primarily, as those in charge have claimed, due to the solving of the expropriation issue. That there had been certain progress in that sense became clear when the Belgrade Land Development Public Agency, ahead of 2023, published the tender for the preparation of technical documentation for the construction of traffic routes with infrastructure for access to Prokop from the direction of the highway. That the construction of that traffic connection might finally start soon is indicated by the latest statement of the leaving mayor of Belgrade, Aleksandar Sapic. He indicated that the construction of those traffic routes should start in 2024.

– Two interchanges will be built, enabling a direct connection with Prokop for road traffic. We are also preparing the preliminary design, and I hope this will be possible, for connecting the rail station by a footpath (a footbridge across the highway) with the Clinical Center and Kneza Milosa Street – Sapic announces.

D. A.

Vlada Republike Srbije

Železnice Srbije a.d. Beograd

Srbijavoz a.d. Beograd

Infrastruktura Železnice Srbije Beograd

Klinički centar Srbije Beograd

Energoprojekt Holding a.d. Beograd

Upravni sud Srbije

Grad Subotica

Grad Leskovac

Grad Novi Sad

Grad Niš

Grad Beograd

PFB d.o.o. Beograd

Railway City doo Beograd

European Union

Government of Serbia

University Clinical Center of Serbia

Railway City

PFB Beograd

Aleksandar Vucic

Aleksandar Sapic

City of Belgrade

City of Novi Sad

City of Nis

City of Leskovac

City of Subotica

Municipality of Presevo

Budapest

Vienna

Brestovac

Belgrade rail hub

Belgrade Center rail station

Prokop

fast railroad

fast trains

trains

Belgrade Budapest fast railroad

footbridge