The project is expected to cost 2 billion euros.
Bulgaria and North Macedonia signed an agreement on November 6 for the joint construction of a 2.4-kilometre east-west cross-border railway tunnel between Giusevo and Kriva Palanka.
The project, which will create a new railway link between the two countries, is part of the ongoing development of the EU’s TEN-T Western Balkans-Eastern Mediterranean Corridor, which connects the port of Durres on the Adriatic Sea in Albania with the port of Varna on the Black Sea in Bulgaria via North Macedonia.
According to what was reported by the Bulgarian News Agency Look nowThe line in Bulgaria is divided into four sections, with a total investment estimated at more than 1.2 billion euros (1.4 billion US dollars). The four sections are:
- A 2.4 km section from the tunnel to the border village of Gyuševo. The government has already issued a tender for the construction work, with a deadline for bidding set for November 11.
- Giusevo-Radomir: In the design phase, work is expected to last for six months, and tenders are expected to be invited from mid-2026
- Radomir – Pernik: Tendering is ongoing and the contract is scheduled to be awarded by the end of November
- Sofia-Pernik: In the planning stage, the construction tender is expected to be issued next year.
On the part of North Macedonia, the total investment value for the construction of the line from Kumanovo to the Bulgarian border amounts to 810 million euros.
Next month, the Transport Ministry hopes to relaunch a tender for the 24-kilometre section between Kriva Palanka and the Bulgarian border. The previous tender, launched in December 2023, was canceled last year, when the estimated cost of €560 million was deemed too prohibitive.
The section between Kumanovo and Beljakovchi was opened in January this year, while the Beljakovchi-Kriva Palanka section is under construction.
It is unclear when tunneling work is likely to begin and a date for its completion has not yet been set.
“I think this deal is a dream of generations on both sides of the border,” says Aleksandar Nikoloski, North Macedonia’s Minister of Transport. “It’s something we read and learned about when we were children.”
“I hope that the start of this project will give new impetus to the completion of the entire railway line, providing our citizens with faster, safer and environmentally friendly means of transportation for both passengers and cargo,” says Grozdan Karadjov, Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Communications.
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