00:00A construction of a high-speed railway that will eventually link Belgrade with Budapest is entering its final stages.
00:06Both sides of the line are being part-financed by Chinese loans and built by Chinese companies.
00:13When it's complete, it will cut journey times between the two capitals to just over two and a half hours.
00:19Our correspondent Aliosha Malenkovich reports.
00:23Chinese workers making the final touches to a railway viaduct in the town of Vrbas.
00:29It is the most complicated section of the new high-speed line running from Novi Sad to Serbia's border with Hungary,
00:36with a length of over 1.4 kilometers and a complex steel structure.
00:42The part of this viaduct is made by steel, and this steel is produced in China and delivered here in Serbia.
00:49So it was a challenge to organize the site in order to enable smooth installation of this steel structure.
00:57We needed to ensure some temporary roads of the public transportation and so on.
01:03This viaduct goes through the industrial heart of the city of Vrbas and over a canal that connects the Danube with the river Tisza.
01:12By the end of this year, trains traveling at almost 200 kilometers per hour will cross this viaduct on their way to and from the border with Hungary.
01:23Because of the construction, no trains are currently running between Novi Sad and the northern city of Subotica.
01:30When they did, their average speed was less than 40 kilometers per hour.
01:35The new high-speed service is expected to bring many benefits.
01:42We can say that the quality of living will rise, the possibilities for people to move from point A to point B in the shortest possible time
01:50that no other form of transportation offers.
01:53Novi Sad to Subotica in 42 minutes, from Belgrade to Subotica in 1 hour 17 minutes.
02:02Driving the project forward are the workers from China Railway International.
02:07In a short period of time, they have managed to overcome some serious technical challenges and bring this project to its final stages.
02:16And the key to that success was cooperation with their Serbian colleagues.
02:21The cooperation between ourselves and our colleagues can be described as harmonious, smooth and fruitful.
02:29This is because we have a common goal, to complete the construction and open the Vrbas section as soon as possible.
02:36This high-speed railway will bring convenience and benefits to the Serbian people.
02:42The Serbian officials say the project will be finished by this June.
02:46After that, there will be several months of testing, with the whole Serbian side of railway expected to open by the end of this year.
02:55Aljoša Milenković, CGTN, Vrbas.
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