Chinese company completes Kolasin-Kos railway rehabilitation in Montenegro

PODGORICA — A ceremony was held here on Thursday in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, to celebrate the completion of Kolasin-Kos railway rehabilitation project by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC).

Also on Thursday, CCECC received a taking-over certificate of the 9.864 kilometers-long, 7-million-euro ($8.29 million) project, marking the successful completion of the first railway project in Europe by a Chinese company with European Union fund.

Chinese Ambassador to Montenegro Cui Zhiwei, Montenegro's Minister of Transport and Maritime Affairs Osman Nurkovic, and Milan Bankovic, general director of directorate for railway traffic at Montenegro's Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs, and representatives from Railway Infrastructure of Montenegro - AD Podgorica, attended the reception.

Bankovic said in his speech that the project has attracted a lot of attention since the start of the work.

"Chinese colleagues have finished the project in line with EU standards, and also accumulated experience in Montenegro on implementing railway projects and other infrastructure ones," said Bankovic.

According to Zhu Tianran, general director of CCECC Montenegro Ltd, CCECC won the public tender of the project on Sept 29, 2015, whose design and construction adopted EU technical standards. This rail line is the most difficult part of the railway from Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, to the port of Bar in Montenegro. The number of bridges and tunnels of this part accounted for 90 percent of that of the whole line. Extreme weather conditions during the past two year in Montenegro also caused trouble to the work.

After the rehabilitation, the speed of the train will be raised from 50-60 km per hour to 80 km per hour, and it will revitalize the economic development of Montenegro.