OREANDA-NEWS. April 07, 2010. In Bratislava, Russian Railways signed a four-way agreement on preparing an investment feasibility study for the project to build a broad-gauge rail line from Kosice (Slovakia) to Vienna (Austria).

The other signatories were the railway administrations and transport authorities of Austria, Slovakia, and Ukraine. The goal of the project is to link the railway systems of Central Europe to regions on the Trans-Siberian Railway, to attract freight flows to the Asia – Russia – Central Europe route, and to raise the competitiveness of rail transport compared to transport by sea or roads. Following a qualifications-based selection process, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants was appointed as the main contractor to develop an investment feasibility study for the project.

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In 2007-2008, the working groups on the project held several four-way meetings in Vienna, Moscow and Bratislava. On 17 July 2008, the sides signed a final organization committee protocol, in which they approved a preliminary investment feasibility study and confirmed its conclusions on the project’s potential effectiveness. Participants in the project also agreed to create a permanent joint managing company (as a joint venture), which will order design and survey work and coordinate further market research.

The project was supported at the 14th session of the Intergovernmental Committee on Economic, Science and Technology Cooperation between Russia and Slovakia, held on 13 November 2009, and also at a meeting between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on 16 November 2009 in Moscow.