N. Macedonia extends deadline for Kicevo-Ohrid motorway completion

The new deadline for the completion of the motorway is December 31, 2026, the parliament said in a notice on Monday.

According to the previous deadline, the motorway was supposed to be completed by the end of 2023.

The government sought the extension of the construction deadline mostly due to the 13 newly discovered landslides requiring new design and technical solutions, Blagoj Bochvarski, transport minister, told parilament. He added that the progress of the works is at 83.84%.

In November, North Macedonia's transport ministry announced the engagement of an expert to scrutinise the project's implementation, prompted by then prime minister Dimitar Kovacevski's statement expressing intent to propose the termination of the agreement with Sinohydro.

Sinohydro started the construction of the Kicevo-Ohrid motorway in 2014. The project was initially budgeted at 375 million euro, but due to multiple delays, the cost has escalated to over 600 million euro.

($ = 0.932 euro)