"Serbian Govt Faces Growing Calls for Answers Over Railway Station Deaths" 4 November 2024

Serbia’s government faced growing pressure on Monday for answers over the collapse of an overhanging roof canopy at a railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad on Friday that killed 14 people...

On Sunday, hundreds of people walked to the seat of the Serbian government in Belgrade, calling for the resignation of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Minister...

...[prime minister] Vucevic warned against “anti-Chinese hysteria” amid questions over the 2021-2024 renovation of the railway station by a consortium of China Railway International Company Ltd, CRIC, and China Communications Construction Company Ltd, CCCC. Both companies, as well as the Serbian government, said the canopy was not part of the renovation...

Novi Sad news website 021 reported that documentation concerning the renovation had been classified as confidential...

The 2021 construction permit issued for the entire reconstruction of railway infrastructure from Novi Sad to the Hungarian border cited the “reconstruction, adaptation and extension of the building” of the railway station in Serbia’s second city, without stating specifically which parts of the building would be affected. Among hundreds of supplementary documents is one titled “Architecture Project for the Extension and Adaptation of the Underpass and Canopy of the Novi Sad Railway Station”, but no further details were provided...