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Last year key infrastructural projects in North Macedonia got stuck in the labyrinths of tenders and administration

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The past 2021 was a year that was marked by the ongoing development of passenger traffic but was also marked by the country’s railroad downgrading. Also, the past year can be described as a period where the key infrastructural projects in Macedonia got stuck in the labyrinths of tenders and administrative procedures. The international tender for building the railroad toward Bulgaria was running during the entire previous year, and a major portion of the year was spent on finalizing the procedure for the additional building of the express road between Rankovce-Kriva Palanka in Corridor 8 while the new deadline for finishing the construction of the Kichevo-Ohrid highway got stuck at the Parliament of RN Macedonia.

What was successfully finished last year was certainly the opening of the express road Stip – Radovish. Both phases of this significant project for the country’s southeastern part were finished last year and as a result, the people now have a modern road with a length of 40 km and a driving speed of 110 km/h. With the new road, the time that takes for traveling between Skope and Strumica was shortened by double but also to other cities in this part of the country.

The Government stated that express road Stip-Radovish was finished before the planned deadline for the project’s completion, which is a rare occurrence in the history of accomplishment of major infrastructural efforts. Still, when it comes to other significant projects, 2021 was full of postponements of the deadlines for finishing projects.

Therefore, at the start of the previous year, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the Public Enterprise for State Roads promised that by the end of 2021 the second phase of the express road Shtip-Kochani would be finished. The road from the village of Krupishte to Kochani is of the length of 13,7 km, but according to the latest statements issued by government representatives is that this capital project for the country’s Eastern part will have to wait until 2022 in order to be open for use.

Despite the announcements that the first two kilometers from the Skopje-Blace highway will be finished during 2021, these two kilometers are planned to be finished by mid-2022, announced the Government of North Macedonia toward the end of the previous year. . A year ago, the PE for State Roads stated for Meta.mk that it expects the contractor to meet the given deadlines i.e. to finish the building of the road from the border crossing to the road knot at Blace by summer 2021.

Regarding the postponement of deadlines, what is most worrisome is the situation with the Kichevo-Ohrid highway at Corridor 8. On the 30th of June 2021, the deadline for finishing the road in the length of 57 km expired. Last summer, the Government adopted the annex for extension of the deadline for this capital project with the draft deadline for opening the highway to be extended by 31st of December 2023. 

Still, even after more than 4 months since the government’s decision , the Parliament still hasn’t adopted the annex for extension of the deadline for finishing the highway on part of the Chinese contractor Sinohidro. In the meantime, the construction works are ongoing at a slower pace.

At Corridor 8, last year, the express road Rankovce-Kriva Palanka was also being built at a slower pace after the contract with the Italian company Tirena Skavi concerning the building of the subsection from Dlabochica to Chatal at the length of 15,5 km was terminated A new tender was issued for this road and the construction works will continue in 2022.

One of the most important events that marked the previous year е was the decision of the US-Turkish consortium Behtel-Enka’s decision to enter the process of finishing the road at Corridors 8 and 10. In March, the Government signed the Memorandum for understanding and cooperation, and as a result, the Parliament of the RN Macedonia passed the Law on determining the public interest and nomination of a strategic partner for implementing the project.

On the other hand, last year, the Anticorruption Commission has requested the Constitutional court to annul and stop the application of the law that was adopted by the Parliament of the RN Macedonia, but in the end, the constitutional judges didn’t start a procedure to evaluate the constitutionality. Toward the end of last year, the Government formed a Committee for negotiations and the negotiating team for negotiations with Behtel – Enka about building the highways Tetovo-Gostivar-Bukojchani and Trebenishta-Struga-Kjafasan as part of the Corridor 8, including the highway Prilep -Bitola as part of the Corridor 10.

2022 will be the year when many more details will be known about sources of financing, ways of building and the deadlines for the building of the country’s strategic interest of many decades – the finishing of Corridor 8. It is likely that the first of the planned highways planned for building will be the route Gostivar -Kichevo, starting from Kichevo to the village of Bukojchani because of assets collected toward the previous year for its building.

When it comes to key road projects, it should be stressed that after a long-term break, last year the finishing of the express road Gradsko-Prilep has started

, where the building of the route from Drenovska to Farishka gorge was taken over by the Chinese company Sinohidro. This company that was initially taking part in the building of the highways Miladinovci-Shtip and Kichevo-Ohrid, at the moment is taking part in the building of the second phase of the express road Shtip-Kochani.

Unlike the partial success in the accomplishment of projects from road infrastructure, regarding the railroad, the year 2021 was unsuccessful. Despite there were promises that the selection of a contractor for the railway road Kumanovo-Kriva Palanka from Corridor 8 was supposed to be finished last year, until the end of the previous year, no contractor was still selected and the construction works weren’t started at all.

In its last year’s report about the country’s reformatory progress, the European Commission requested from the country to take urgent measures in order to speed up the construction of the railroad line in the length of 64,8 km. The offers from interested companies and consorciums in building the railroad line were submitted until the end of November, but the selection of the most favorable contractor and the start of the construction works are expected to be announced during the first quarter of 2022.

In 2021, a time was spent on updating the financial construction for the building of the last third phase of the railroad route to Bulgaria between Kriva Palanka and the border crossing Deve Bair, for which the Government applied fr funding at the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF) in ordered to secure assets in the amount of 150 million EUR. 

One positive moment for the railroad infrastructure is the fact that last year, the PE for Railroad InfrastructureЕден позитивен момент за железничката инфраструктура е фактот што лани Јавното претпријатие за железничка инфраструктура was working on a conceptual solution for building a new railroad branch of the existing railroad line Skopje – Kumanovo to the International airport Skopje .

This public enterprise is expecting that by the end of 2023 a railroad line would be built to the Skopje airport and that would provide a direct railroad line between Skopje’s center and the airport. For this project, the project’s documentation has yet to be finished and assets to be secured for its financing, so it is expected that during 2022 the PE will be working to accomplish these tasks.

On the other hand, last year, the railroad transportation in this country for the first time failed to meet the set timetable where only 15pairs of trains daily were evidenced. Depsite that no international passenger trains were planned in 2021, more than half of trains from Skopje to Kichevo, Kochani and Prishtina didn’t traverse at all.

In conditions when EU declared the year 2021 as the European Year of Rail, even in Skopje last September the European train “Connecting Europe Express“ arrived to send EU’s message that the railway is the future of transportation, the steps that the Macedonian authorities took in order to reduce the passenger railway transportation are completely opposed to the messages that arrived from official Brussels.

The conclusion drawn from the past year is that the central government should do more work and meet all given deadlines and promises when it comes to key passenger and railroad projects so that they may avoid any criticism in failing to meet their tasks , and also to overcome the people’s discontent when it comes to accomplishing their goals.

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