The Serbian government has taken a loan worth 24.9 billion dinars (approximately 213 million euros) from Poštanska Štedionica to finance the construction of a tunnel connecting Despot Stefan Boulevard and the area near the Faculty of Economics. According to the contract signed between the Ministry of Finance and Poštanska Štedionica, the loan has a repayment period of up to 10 years. The tunnel is part of the “small metro” project, which also includes the removal of the Old Sava Bridge and the construction of a new bridge over the Sava River in the same location.
The loan for the tunnel project will have a variable interest rate, calculated by adding a fixed margin of 2.5 percent per year to the 3M BELIBOR rate. After four years, the state will begin repaying the loan in 24 equal quarterly installments.
Belgrade’s mayor, Aleksandar Šapić, stated that the tunnel construction project is referred to as the “small metro” because it will connect Despot Stefan Boulevard with New Belgrade via the new Sava Bridge, allowing for faster traffic flow that is “quicker than the metro.”
“This is one of the most important, if not the most important, traffic projects in Belgrade in recent decades,” Šapić said in May, during a tour of the preparatory works for the tunnel construction. “First, it will relieve the city center of 13-14 percent of its traffic. It is also estimated that it will reduce pollution in the city center by over 15 percent because traffic will be diverted two kilometers underground. The most important thing is that it will connect the two farthest parts of the city.”
The mayor also pointed out that the project will require several months of work to relocate infrastructure such as the electrical network and sewerage in order to prepare for tunnel drilling.
According to the chief urban planner of Belgrade, Marko Stojčić, the tunnel will start at the Faculty of Economics and end near Despot Stefan Boulevard, close to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP). The tunnel will be approximately two kilometers long, designed to divert traffic from New Belgrade to Palilula, Zvezdara, and the Danube bridges underground, which will help reduce traffic congestion in the city center.
At the end of 2023, a contract was signed for the construction of both the tunnel and a new bridge over the Sava River between the Serbian government, the Belgrade City Secretariat for Communal and Housing Affairs (as the client and investor) and Power China International Group Limited, represented by Power Construction Corporation of China Limited Belgrade Branch as the contractor.
Previously, it was estimated that the construction of the tunnel would cost 150 million euros, with the loan originally expected to come from China. The completion of the tunnel and one tube of the tunnel from the Faculty of Economics to Despot Stefan Boulevard, along with the construction of the new bridge over the Sava, is expected to take up to three years.
