SKOPJE (Macedonia), March 3 (SeeNews) – Macedonia has launched the upgrade of the Kumanovo-Beljakovce railway section, part of pan-European transport Corridor VIII, under a project worth some 50 million euro ($69.1 million), the Macedonian government said.
The upgrade of the 30.8 kilometre (km) railway track in eastern Macedonia is the first phase of a three-stage project, which includes the construction of three railway stations, overpasses, underpasses and a bridge, the government said in a statement on its website on Sunday.
Macedonia's transport ministry said in December that railway operator Makedonski Zeleznici-Infrastruktura has signed a deal with Germany’s Wibe for the upgrade of the Kumanovo-Beljakovce railway section.
In eastern Macedonia, Corridor VIII includes two more railway sections - from Beljakovce to Kriva Palanka, with a length of 34 km, and from Kriva Palanka to the Bulgarian border with a length of 24 km. The construction of the Beljakovce-Kriva Palanka section will cost 144 million euro while the works on the third section that leads to the Bulgarian border are estimated at 360 million euro, the transport ministry said earlier.
Corridor VIII, with total length of 586 km, runs from the southern Italian ports of Bari and Brindisi, through Albania and Macedonia to the Bulgarian Black Sea ports of Burgas and Varna.
($=0.7235 euro)