North Macedonia Pushes Forward on Rail Link to Bulgaria

The Macedonian side is willing and concrete activities take place to construct the Corridor 8 rail toward Bulgaria, but there is no adequate response from the other side, Sinisha Ivanovski, director of Infrastructure Macedonian Railways, said Monday, CE Report quotes MIA.

As regards the railway toward Albania, both countries are willing, he said, however, UNESCO should issue guidelines first involving the section near Lake Ohrid.

“We prioritize Corridor 10 because it could prove economically beneficial for the country because goods from Greek ports transit via this corridor toward Europe. As for Corridor 8, the first section to Beljakovce was completed, works are under way on the section from Beljakovce to Kriva Palanka and 30 percent of the works have been completed. The third section from Kriva Palanka to the border with Bulgaria is still the subject of discussions,” Ivanovski said answering reporters’ questions at Monday’s news conference.

It was agreed in the many meetings I had with the top officials of Bulgaria’s railway infrastructure, he said, that the tunnel must be drilled from one side only and on a technical level, there is a solution that suits both sides.

Considering the political moment, only one side is showing willingness, according to him.

“We’re working on the ground investing a lot to build the railway to Bulgaria, whereas Bulgaria hasn’t started any construction works yet, unfortunately. In addition to drilling the 1,5-km tunnel, they should only build 500-meter rail to the station Gjueshevo. Also, the rail from Sofia to Gjueshevo is in poor condition. As long as we are working and Bulgaria is doing nothing not responding to the dozen invitations I’d sent myself, I believe the two sides have an unsuccessful story,” stated Ivanovski.

Regarding the section of the railway toward Albania, UNESCO is expected to issue guidelines involving Lake Ohrid since both countries are using one-million-euro grant to find a technical solution.

“The two countries have partnership that will be activated this spring. If everything goes according to plan, we should have a basic project five to six years from now allowing the rail from Kichevo to Struga to be build and then, from Struga to Lin [in Albania],” Ivanovski said adding that Albania currently is focused on building rail toward Montenegro.