According to eKapija, the acquisition of electric buses and the planning of six new public transport lines to and from Surčin is the result of a study conducted for the purposes of EXPO, specifically focusing on the public transport lines that will serve the EXPO event. The Ministry of Finance held a meeting with the Secretariat for Public Transport and GSP Belgrade to discuss the project.
The purchase of these vehicles and the planning of the new lines will be financed by the state. The procurement will not follow the regular tendering process but will be done under special procedures enabled by a lex specialis for EXPO. The plan is to have all 100 electric buses delivered by the first quarter of 2027. Unofficial sources suggest that one of the initial ideas was to carry out the procurement and subsequent operation of these six lines through a public-private partnership, with interest from the Obrenovac-based company Strela. However, authorities at the national level have decided to proceed with the project without involving any private partners.
Additionally, the state will fund the necessary infrastructure, including chargers for the electric buses, the installation of transformer stations, the transportation of the future depot, and other requirements.
It was also agreed during the meeting with the Ministry of Finance that after EXPO concludes, GSP Belgrade will permanently take over the management of the 100 electric buses and the six lines they serve.
It is important to note that this plan for acquiring 100 electric buses and establishing six new e-bus lines for EXPO is separate from the recent decision by the Belgrade City Assembly regarding a private initiative from Strela, which proposed a public-private partnership that would have eliminated the trolleybus system in Belgrade. This proposal would have involved handing over the trolleybus lines to a private partner, who would replace the existing trolleybuses with electric buses. The current national project also has no relation to the ongoing analysis by the City of Belgrade regarding whether GSP should purchase 100 trolleybuses or electric buses.
In the best-case scenario, in a few years, GSP Belgrade could have 100 new electric buses bought by the state for EXPO, and another 100 trolleybuses (or electric buses) purchased by the city, making the largest public transport company in Belgrade a leader in the operation of electric vehicles in Serbia.
An open question remains the construction of the necessary infrastructure, namely the depot for the parking and maintenance of these vehicles. According to unofficial sources, one of the options being considered is the construction of a new GSP depot in Surčin, which would serve as the base for the electric buses. The location in Surčin is deemed more suitable for building the required infrastructure and supplying the necessary electrical power for such a depot.
