The high-speed railway project was launched last fall, but within this one year, we are doing the most important part of a project that is the least attractive to the public – and that is the part that means good planning, geotechnical investigations, further, research on environmental impact, research on impact in the environment where people live, archaeological sites and so on, Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport Aleksandar Nikoloski said Wednesday evening.
“If one doesn’t make a good plan, one could have another Ohrid-Kichevo on their hands. And that is why we are making this plan, the deadline is somewhere around one year, so that after we see the first excavators on the ground, the project can really be completed in five years. So, the deadline that we initially gave, 2031, remains – and in 2031 we will have a high-speed railway from the border with Serbia to the border with Greece, double-track,” Nikoloski told Sitel TV.
The deputy PM noted that the high-speed railway would cost approx. EUR 10 million per kilometer and added that the new route, which does not coincide with the existing railway, would be shorter than it.
“The price per kilometer should be slightly below EUR 10 million, which is relatively competitive, considering that it is a double-track railway, which means that the entire project should cost somewhere around EUR 2 billion. The current railway from the border with Serbia to the border with Greece is 235 kilometers, but the new one, because it will use a much straighter line, will be slightly below 200 kilometers,” Nikoloski elaborated.
