[4] The unsuccessful, decades-long attempted construction of the new central railway station of Belgrade was hampered by a lack of funding to finish the adjoining 14 km of tunnels, several railway bridges including the New Railroad Bridge across the Sava river, a new road network connecting to the city and technical installations.

It also included the removal of all tracks from the Savamala (Sava Amphitheatre) and of the Belgrade Main railway station, while the location along the river was to be turned into vast green spaces.

Because of that, including the seemingly unrealistic deadline of only 18 months, the council session after which the plan was greenlighted was very turbulent and lasted for 7.5 hours.

In 1974 the design project was finished, preparatory works officially started on 3 December 1976, and full construction began on 8 October 1977.

[24] The deadline for completion was 1 May 1979, but the rapidly deteriorating economic situation in Yugoslavia at the time slowed construction and the project was halted in 1980.

Serbian President Slobodan Milošević and Prime Minister Mirko Marjanović officially opened the construction of the concrete roof slab on 7 July 1996, which was mostly finished in 1999, but the building was halted again due to the NATO bombing of Serbia and lack of funds.

[21][22][24] In 2005, an international competition was held to find a strategic partner who would finish the station and acquire rights to build and sell commercial facilities on the site.

[24] In 2012, a €25.8 million loan was granted by the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, and on 3 December 2014 work was resumed, with Energoprojekt as the lead company of the construction consortium, being chosen again after the bidding.

The work was expected to be completed in 14 months,[21][22] and the station was officially opened on 26 January 2016 by prime minister Aleksandar Vučić.

A series of temporary solutions have had to be applied, including the defunct and deteriorated Topčider railway station which was temporarily revitalized and adapted for auto trains.

The major flaw remained a poor public transportation connection, so the railway company made an official request for this problem to be solved.

Until mid-2022, the station lacked a 9,000 m2 (97,000 sq ft) section of roof and the platforms beneath it, the main building itself, and the access road to the highway.

That means the entire 2015 urban plan was scrapped, while the works on the station's building cannot start before the second half of 2021 and will be finished in 2023 in the best-case scenario.

The start was planned for the fall of 2021, the deadline for the building was the end of 2022, and for the entire complex (commercial venues, parking lots, etc.)

[34] Finishing of the roof slab was then moved to August 2022, construction of the station building was planned to start in October 2022, and it was estimated that a further €70 million would be needed for the full completion.

Previous concrete construction on the slab itself was demolished, purportedly with great care so as not to cause damage to the platforms below, especially in regard to the leaks.

[44] The construction of the Belgrade Waterfront and track removal in Savamala and apparent pressure to finish the work before the expiration of the deadline, contributed to the hastily done job.

[45] Regarding how distant the station is from downtown, its official name, Belgrade Center, is often mocked and ignored by the citizens and passengers who almost without exception call it Prokop.

As a result, commuters need almost 20 minutes to leave the station upon their arrival and have to travel for 3 to 4 km (1.9 to 2.5 mi) to downtown to reach other public transport routes as Prokop itself is not interconnected.

[47] As none of the planned infrastructure has been built – urbanization and development of the neighborhood, numerous shops, hotels, excellent commuting connections, two metro lines, taxi station – Vučić maintains that the isolation of the location will directly bring to the further decrease in the number of railway passengers.

Some of the missing infrastructure which they named, and which were considered megalomaniacal to begin with by critics, includes three additional railway stations (new or expanded: New Belgrade, Zemun, South), two additional bus stations (South, East) and lengthening and widening of the Deligradska Street from its current end at the highway, including the demolition of the urbanized hill of Maleško Brdo, east of Prokop.

[51] In the late 1990s, instigated by first lady Mirjana Marković, an initiative was started to build a Chinese commercial centre in Prokop, in order to enhance economic cooperation and trade between China and Serbia.

[22] Supervisor Dragan Dobrašinović, who reported to the Financial Board of the National Assembly of Serbia, said that procedures for the 2014 reconstruction were "distinctively political" due to the pushing of the Belgrade Waterfront project.

[21] When it was announced that the Kuwaitis would grant the loan, Serbian authorities published a computer model of what the future station building would look like.

[52] In January 2021, Transparency Serbia and other organizations reported that the procedure where the company Railway City Belgrade was selected as the contractor for the station's building was against the law.

They were abandoned after 2005, and the local residents wanted to bring back greenery, plant trees, and build a children's playground.

[57] In October 2021, the city announced plans to build 37,000 square metres (400,000 sq ft) of commercial and residential space at this location.

[34] In December 2021, the city announced the withdrawal of the project due to the "accepted citizens' complaints", and as the construction could "indeed trigger massive waste again", though reporters connected the decision with the upcoming Belgrade elections in April 2022.

[5] With all its inadequacies (bad interconnection, lack of the stationary building, planned omission from the first subway line), and for decades still the unfulfilled task of representing a "construction pride of modern Belgrade Railway junction", by June 2021 it was noted that the term "Central" in the station's name is simply irritating to passengers.