ZERO tolerance to railway destruction

Serbian Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Tomislav Momirovic has said that the state will not tolerate criminals destroying and looting railway assets.

„On the Belgrade-Novi Sad high-speed railway, unruly  criminals  committed a serious theft and caused financial damage to the railway company Zeleznice Srbije and, therefore, to the state of Serbia,“ Momirovic said after the visit to the railway station Nova Pazova, said his cabinet.

On the high-speed railway, solid connectors of the contact network on all four tracks were stolen, so slow driving was introduced in the section between Stara and Nova Pazova.

Momirovic said that because of such actions, not only was the railway forced to reduce the speed of driving from 200 to 20km per hour, but a huge danger was also caused to the safety of all transport users, endangering hundreds of lives, as well as the regular operation of railway traffic.

The minister said Serbia had the fastest railway in Eastern Europe, that more than 1 billion euros had been invested to connect the two largest cities.

„We will not allow criminals to endanger railway assets, we will not allow anyone to rob what our workers have built with hard effort, what our citizens have financed and the state will have the strength to face this problem, to bring all the people who participated in this criminal act to justice and to hold them accountable for the committed act,“ Momirovic said.

The Railway Act stipulates that for the destruction, damage or theft of parts of railway infrastructure, regardless of their quantity and value, a prison sentence of three months to five years may be imposed, and in the event that a person is seriously injured or large-scale property damage is caused, the prison sentence is one to eight years.

Izvor: Beta

Foto: Beta