Soon new tender for railway bridge across the Velika Morava River

Serbian Railways will soon publish a call for proposals from prospective contractors to find a replacement for Austria's Alpine to complete a railway bridge across the Velika Morava River near Cuprija, Serbian Railways CEO Dragoljub Simonovic announced.

Simonovic said that the previous management of the national railway company had illegally made an advance payment to the Austrian-Slovenian consortium Alpine-Meteorit and acknowledged additional works valued at about EUR 10 million, which should be investigated by competent agencies.

The plan is to terminate the agreement with the consortium as a whole, and not only with the Alpine company.

Construction of this railway bridge is financed with the proceeds of a European Investment Bank (EIB) loan. Once completed, the 322.5 meter steel bridge will weigh 2,400 tonnes and feature double tracks. The agreement between Serbian Railways and the Alpine-Meteorit consortium was signed 30 December 2010, while the work commenced 10 February 2011.

The deadline to complete the work was 3 August 2012, but it was later extended until 30 September 2013.