The Serbian president Vucic visited the reconstruction project on the railway line from Nis to Dimitrovgrad

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic toured the reconstruction and modernisation of the railway line from Nis to Dimitrovgrad. The Bulgarian company "Trace Group Hold" Plc is the contractor of the project, which is 100 km long.

"And now we are talking to the Europeans we are working with on this section, there will be significantly more money. Everything, together with Nis ring road project, will come out to around 430 million euro. And as a gift from Europe, we will receive around 108 million euro," said Vucic during his visit to the site.

"Today is a big day for us, which shows everything we do in South East Serbia. I am grateful to all those who are implementing this project and to the European Commission, which has given us a lot of funds to develop our Serbia. (...) I thank our European friends for their cooperation, which we greatly appreciate. This project is crucial not only for Pirot County, but also for Belgrade and the whole of Serbia," Vucic wrote on his Instagram account.

The railway line Nis - Tsaribrod (Dimitrovgrad) is the only railway line in the entire length of the international Corridor X that is not electricity equipped. The railway currently has no overhead contact line and is diesel-powered only. Once the project is completed, there will be an overhead contact line, which means that the locomotives will also run on electric traction. There is work to be done in the gorge tunnels. The project is financed by the European Investment Bank. Part of the funds are grant and come from the EU Investment Framework for the Western Balkans.

Trace is also implementing another railway project in Serbia financed by the EIB - the modernisation of the Nis-Brestovac railway line, which is almost 60% complete.

"The Nis-Brestovac section is expected to be completed in 2025 and the Nis-Dimitrovgrad section in 2027," said Prof. Nikolay Mihailov, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of "Trace Group Hold" Plc