Three days before the second round of the local elections in Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, the mayor of Skopje Petre Shilegov announced the call for tender for implementation of the the Bus Rapid Transit – BRT.
The tender procedure follows after the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has approved a loan for the implementation of the Bus Rapid Transit in Skopje.
At the beginning, the first line of the BRT between Gjorche Petrov and Novo Lisiche in the length of 12.81 km will be put into use. It will have 21 bus stops and 2 terminals. With the implementation of the first phase, it is expected that the transit time for the passengers from the first to the second settlement of Skopje from the current 70 minutes to be halved to 35 minutes.
Together with the construction of the lane for BRT’s first line, eco-friendly 18-meter long buses with LPG-electric hybrid engines will be purchased.
The tender procedure that is published on EBRD’s webpage is scheduled to end no later than the 14th of December, when all of the interested companies taking part in the procedure will have to submit their pre-qualification offers. The tender itself will be implemented in two phases: during the initial phase, companies and the consortiums that are meeting the tender’s criteria will be selected, so that they move to the second qualification phase. During this phase, the most favorable bidder will be selected.
An upgrade of the current JSP – Skopje’s depot in Gjorce Petrov is planned. including the building of a new depot for buses in Novo Lisiche.