SKOPJE (Macedonia), October 21 (SeeNews) – Macedonia's transport ministry said on Tuesday it is seeking a consultant to draft a main project for the construction of the Kriva Palanka-Deve Bair railway section, which leads to the Bulgarian border and is part of Corridor VIII.
The consultancy assignment will be financed from the European Union’s IPA funds under a 22-month contract worth 3.5 million euro ($4.5 million), the transport ministry said in a statement.
Bids should be sent by November 20.
According to initial estimates, works on the 23.4-kilometre (km) railway section Kriva Palanka-Deve Bair will cost 330 million euro.
In Macedonia, Corridor VIII includes two more railway sections - from Kumanovo to Beljakovce (31 km), on which the works are already underway, and 34-km Beljakovce-Kriva Palanka section.
The pre-qualification stage, for the selection of a construction company which will build the Beljakovce-Kriva Palanka section, will be launched in November while construction works should start in the first quarter of 2016.
Corridor VIII, with a total length of 586 km, runs from the southern Italian ports of Bari and Brindisi, through Albania and Macedonia to the Bulgarian Black Sea ports of Burgas and Varna.
($=0.7710 euro)