The new contractors of the works on the railway to Bulgaria will get access to the construction sites this month, and in the course of the next they are expected to start concrete work, after in the meantime they have completed the administrative procedures, with the registration of subsidiaries and the provision of the necessary certificates and approvals.

"Strabak" should finish the work for reconstruction and completion of the first section, Kumanovo-Beljakovce, where there is no work on the ground since June 2020, and "Gülermak" should completely build the second section Beljakovce-Kriva Palanka. Theirs will be the management and engineering staff, and ours will be the operational and construction machinery.

Hari Lokvenec, director of JP ŽRSM Infrastructure, the state-owned enterprise investor, promises maximum transparency of the progress of the works, considering the "past" of the multi-decade project, with multiple stops, which all governments worked on and promised to complete.

- Taking into account that "Strabag" is already an established company in the country and has all the necessary conditions for the activation of the work, their introduction to work will be much faster compared to the introduction to the work of the Turkish company. Access to the construction site will be made during this month for the contractor companies, and the start of construction in coordination with them. Keeping in mind that the work for the second section of the railway is huge, it is expected that this section would happen at the end of September, Lokvenec told MIA.

The start of the works, as he clarified, is preceded by the opening of a subsidiary in this country, obtaining certificates from the Chamber of Certified Architects and Engineers, which certifies the professions of engineers and gives approvals, as well as approval from the Ministry of Transport and Communications based on the approvals that they received the engineers as an integral part of the project implementation team.

- As an investor, we have an obligation to give them access to the construction site in the next period and to provide the day for the start of the works. The date for the start of work, according to the rules of the EBRD, is from eight to 90 days after signing the contract, and these deadlines will be respected for sure, but we are trying to reduce them to a minimum and start work as soon as possible, said Lokvenec .

The deadline for the realization of the first phase of the Kumanovo-Beljakovce railway is 24 months, and there is work along the entire route of 31 kilometers. According to the estimates of the previous supervising engineer, 54 percent of the works have been completed there, and the investment amounts to 40,5 million euros. For the second section, Beljakovce-Kriva Palanka, with a length of 34 kilometers and a value of 155 million euros, the construction period is 36 months.

- The promises are that they will shorten the performance deadline by six months, but they would be satisfied with the completion of the work within the deadline. They will have full logistical support from us as an investor for the smooth running of things, said Lokvenec.

He is sure that the works will be completed within the deadlines, and he argues this with the funds provided and, as he claims, the facts that there are no major archaeological findings on the route that would slow down the project, the 100-percent resolved expropriation, as well as the quality of the selected contractors. .

According to Lokvenec, the contractors will bring their own management and engineering staff, domestic staff will be hired for the operational part, as well as domestic construction mechanization. My expectation, he says, is that everything that exists of mechanization will be included in these projects given their size and the need to get things done on time.

For the third section, from Kriva Palanka to the border with Bulgaria, a tender for the selection of a contractor should be announced by the end of the year. An evaluation of the project documentation by a consultant of the European Union is in progress, based on which the conditions of the tender will be set for maximum effective realization. Already 216 million euros have been secured from the necessary 405 million euros, according to the project value estimated five years ago. The financial structure so far consists of investment grants from the Investment Fund for the Western Balkans (WBIF) of 155 million euros, as well as 61 million euros from the IPA 2 program. It is expected that the works will start next year and be completed in 2027, which is the promised deadline for completing the activities on the Bulgarian side.

On the first section, railway stations should be built in Novo Kumanovo, Šuplji Kamen and Beljakovce, as well as six stops, on the second there will be stations in Kriva Palanka and Ginovce and three stops, while on the third, along 24 kilometers, 25 tunnels and 51 bridge.

The project for the railway to Bulgaria was started in 1994, and the works were first stopped in 2004. They resumed a decade later, in March 2014, but the deadline set for the completion of the works in 2016 was not met, due to, according to the official explanations, the problems of a property-legal nature. There have been no activities in the field since June 2020, when the then German contractor "Vibe" unilaterally terminated the Agreement.

In January of last year, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced a tender for the selection of contractors for the railway, and the procedure was completed last month when contracts were signed with "Strabak" and "Gülermak". Part of the tender is the contract for the reconstruction of the railroad from Nogaevci to Negotino on Corridor 10, in length of 31 kilometers, and the performance of the investment of 4,8 million euros was won by "Strabak". The total financial construction for the three contracts amounts to over 200 million euros.

Source: MIA