Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mali signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the construction of the first line of the Belgrade metro on January 22. The agreement between the government of Serbia, the City of Belgrade, the Chinese company PowerChina and the French companies Alstom and Egis Rail finally paves the way for construction of a metro in the Serbian capital, an idea first broached when trams were introduced in the city back in 1912. 

The subway project is one of the most important infrastructure projects for Serbia all time and it is expected to cost a total of €4.4bn. 

It should help to ease traffic congestion in Belgrade, which is the largest city by population without a rapid transit system in Europe. The mega project should also create employment and help stimulate the economy as Serbia emerges from the coronacrisis. 

The MoU is an important step towards building the first line of Belgrade metro. The value of the agreement is €581mn, of which the first €127mn will be used to raise the efficiency of the power distribution network, while €454mn will be put into the construction of the first subway line.

Two lines are planned for Belgrade metro, with 43 stations, connected to the BG Voz system. Line 1 should start in Zeleznik and finish in Mirijevo, while Line 2 will start in Mirijevo and finish in Zemun. It was also proposed that in the future, a third line from Banjica will be built.

Ideas for a Belgrade metro have been seriously considered since the 1950s General Urban Plan discussions. The first proper plan came in 1958, when architect Nikola Dobrovic suggested a line that runs along Kalemegdan, Terazije, Slavija and Cubura. 

But the metro was never built, and Yugoslavia’s escalating debt in the 1980s was followed by the breakup of the federation and wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. 

In the years to come, the idea of a Belgrade metro resurfaced from time to time. But in 2014, Belgrade's Mayor Sinisa Mali talked more concretely about the Metro construction being started by 2016, and that the French government might support the building and financing of the subway. In 2015, he stated that the price will be from €800mn to €1.1bn, but in 2016 lifted the estimate to €2bn. In February and March 2018 the future metro was one of the focal points in the campaign for the local elections in Belgrade. Fast construction of the metro was promised and a motto “as quick as saying metro" was coined. Celebrities were enlisted to promote it and to buy the tickets for the future subway.

In September 2018, the City Assembly of Belgrade approved the incorporation of a public agency called Belgrade Metro & Rail with the purpose of coordinating the upcoming metro project. The total length of the two lines to be build the first phase will be 42km, according to the plans. Despite previous arrangements between the Serbian and French governments, in April 2019 deputy mayor Vesic announced that the metro will be funded by the Chinese company Power China and built in partnership with the city.

After the meeting of the French and Serbian presidents Emmanuel Macron and Aleksandar Vucic in 2019 it was decided that the Serbian government will be the investor, and not the city of Belgrade. The interstate agreement on the realisation of infrastructure projects with France, signed on November 26, 2020 and was ratified in late 2020. 

Criticism about almost everything about the adopted project then started: routes, price, selection of the construction companies without public bidding, the lack of many of the studies still needed for the works to be conducted, and so on. However the price turned out to be a major issue. While the same number of lines with roughly the same length was projected to cost €2.2bn during the previous administration, the estimated price began to grow to €3bn (mid-2018), €3.6bn (December 2018) and finally €4.4bn (June 2019).

Moreover, following the signing of the 2020 deal, critics from the NGO sector warned that while French and Chinese contractors had apparently already been chosen, the government had failed to come up with a project. As the negations with the companies include the possible routes, critics said these were being adjusted to the contractors’ wishes, not to the transportation problems in the city. Moreover, critics complained of legal procedures being bypassed and a lack of transparency, saying the deals were being made in direct conversations between domestic politicians and foreign companies. Other criticisms, including from Don’t Drown Belgrade, are that the metro as currently planned endangers the city’s water supply.