February, 2021

North Macedonia

Corridor VIII – Railway Construction from the Black Sea Coast to the Adriatic Coast

Infrastructure

Hot

The rail link along Corridor VIII is progressing. The total length of the route to be completed towards the Bulgarian border is 89 km, and will be divided into three sections and should be completed by 2023 at the latest. For the construction of the railroad -Beljakovce, EBRD provided the funding in the amount of EUR 46 million. It was expected that Kumanovo- Beljakovce would be completed by the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021. However, the construction of Kumanovo-Beljakovce stopped after the contract was terminated by the contractor. The Government decided to cancel the tender procedure for a contractor for the second phase. Instead, a new public call will be published, only this time, both the first and second phases of construction will be covered with this tender procedure. The section from Beljakovce to Kriva Palanka, 34 km in length, should cost EUR 140 million, financed by the EBRD. Signalling, telecommunications and surveillance will be tendered separately. The third section, 24 km from Kriva Palanka to , is in the final stages of preparation of project documentation. The construction costs for this section are estimated at EUR 405 million. Authorities announced that all three sections of the railway with Bulgaria are estimated at over EUR 580 million. A team of experts from and Bulgaria has been formed to cooperate on the project for the Corridor VIII railway. It is expected that by 2025, the railroad line to Bulgaria will be completed. Among these connections, the Corridor VIII includes a railway connection between Kichevo, North Macedonia and Lin, Albania. The two cities will be connected with a railway, which should pass through . With the completion of the Kichevo-Lin railway, the Western Balkans will have a connection crossing from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea, connecting two ends of Corridor VIII. A Spanish-French consortium carried out the design for the Kichevo-Lin railway, however the construction has not yet begun. The Kichevo-Lin will be 63 kilometres long according to the preliminary estimates, and it will cost around EUR 500 million, for which funds have not yet been secured.