The Hungarian Cypriot railway, which connects Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, and Budapest, the capital of Hungary, is a landmark project of the "Belt and Road" jointly built by China and Central and Eastern European countries, and is also the first project to connect China's railway technology and equipment with the EU's railway interconnection technical specifications. A few days ago, the reporter from the General Radio interviewed the construction progress of the Hungarian Serbian railway in Serbia and Hungary.

The Hungarian Serbian railway starts from Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, and ends at Budapest, the capital of Hungary, with a total length of 341.7 kilometers, of which the Serbian section is 183.1 kilometers long, with a maximum design speed of 200 kilometers per hour.

The section from Belgrade, the capital, to Novi Sad, the second largest city, has been put into operation in March 2022, and the travel time between the two cities has been greatly reduced from 90 minutes to 36 minutes. Milan Banovic, a Serbian engineer, participated in the construction of this railway. Now he takes this railway train to work every day. As both a builder and an experiencer, Banovich has a deeper feeling.

Milan Banovich, Serbian engineer of the Hungary Serbia Railway Project: It can be said that the Beno section of the Hungary Serbia Railway has brought revolutionary changes. The opening of the high-speed railway with a speed of 200km/h is different from the past. Citizens are satisfied, the utilization rate is high, and the flow of people is also increasing.

Since the Beno Section of the Hungary Serbia Railway was opened more than two years ago, it has sent more than 7 million passengers, establishing the brand image of "China Railway" in the Balkans. Since the official commencement of construction in June 2018, China and Serbia have overcome a series of technical and transactional problems, achieved multiple project breakthroughs, and added "iron and steel friendship" to the new railway.

Qi Fengran, head of the joint venture project department of China Railway International CCCC Hungary Serbia Railway in Serbia: We are now fully deploying construction resources and organizing construction arrangements scientifically and reasonably.

Alessandra Milosavlevic, Serbian engineer of Hungary Serbia Railway Project: Chinese engineers have brought new technologies, such as China's track laying technology. It is very meaningful to observe this process, learn from it and become a part of it.

Slobodan Kostik, Serbian engineer of Hungary Serbia Railway Project: I hope to jointly build more and more "Belt and Road" projects. Because of these projects, all ethnic groups and individuals are connected together.

In late April, workers from China and Serbia jointly laid the last set of rails at the construction site of Bachkatopola Station. The Novisad Subotica Border High Speed Railway, that is, the "Nuosu Section of the Hungary Serbia Railway", was completed.

General Radio reporter Gu Xin: On the Hungarian section of the Hungarian section of the Hungarian Cypriot railway, which is more than 20 kilometers south of the Hungarian capital Budapest, we can see that the construction of China Railway is proceeding in a tense and orderly manner. By the end of this year, the construction and installation of catenary, communication signal and electric power transformation, which embody the characteristics of electrified railway, will be nearly completed.

Since the construction scope of the project in Hungary involves seven discontinuous sections, such as Hungarian National Park and Nature Reserve, the implementation of environmental protection requirements has become a huge challenge.

Chen Zhongliang, Chief Engineer of the Project Division of China Railway Hungary Serbia Railway No.9 Bureau, said that at the beginning of the project in 2020, the project team spent 10 months preparing more than 1300 pages of detailed environmental assessment report. With the mature experience accumulated in domestic ecological protection, the team finally implemented the environmental requirements of the EU and Hungary.

Chen Zhongliang, Chief Engineer of the Project Division of China Railway Hungary Serbia Railway No.9 Engineering Group Co., Ltd.: These environmental protection requirements are actually consistent with our domestic concept of respecting, obeying and protecting nature.

As the chief translator of the project branch of China Railway Hungary Serbia Railway Electrification Bureau, George participated in all aspects of the project. He was deeply impressed by his Chinese colleagues' professional attitude of striving for perfection.

George, Chief Translator of the Project Division of China Railway Hungary Serbia Railway Electrification Bureau: In fact, there must be obstacles at the beginning, but because they all understand the work better and are skilled workers, they know how to do it, and then gradually get familiar with it. Now to what extent, he doesn't need to talk anymore. He knows what to do next with a look.

Experts said that the Hungarian Cypriot railway, when completed and opened to traffic in the future, will effectively alleviate the lack of north-south railway traffic in Hungary.

Morditz, Dean of the School of International Relations of Matthias Kovinus College: The completion of the Hungary Serbia Railway will help to strengthen this north-south traffic link, which I think is very important. Hungary and China will continue to develop more economic cooperation, which is why I think China Hungary cooperation has broad prospects, because everything is based on the premise of win-win.

 

Front desk reporter Gu Xin: There is a Hungarian proverb that "friends are better than gold". In the future, this railway will help Hungary strengthen its position as a transportation and logistics hub in Central and Eastern Europe, and realize the docking of China's railway technology and equipment with the EU's railway interconnection technical specifications. The Hungary Serbia railway project has become a model of practical cooperation between China and Europe.

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