THE prime ministers of Serbia, Ms Ana Brnabic, and North Macedonia, Mr Dimitar Kovacevski, were present at the signing of a memorandum on cooperation on November 17 to upgrade the railway between the Serbian city of Niš and the North Macedonian capital of Skopje. A joint working group will now be set up to define an action plan.
The memorandum was signed by Serbia’s minister of construction, transport and infrastructure, Mr Goran Vesic, and North Macedonia’s minister of transport and communications, Mr Blagoj Bocvarski.
This project aims to modernise and electrify the 205km existing line to allow trains to travel at speeds of up to 120km/h. This part of the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.
There is also a plan to construct a 135km new line from Niš to Preševo, funded by Serbia from grants and loans. North Macedonia would be responsible for funding the construction of the 50km stretch from the border to Skopje. Both countries are expected to apply jointly for European Union funding to finance the project.
The project forms part of a larger programme to upgrade lines in the region as part of Pan-European Corridor X from Salzburg in Austria to Thessaloniki in Greece. “We have completed the high-speed railway between Belgrade and Novi Sad,” Brnabic said. “By 2024, we will complete the section between Novi Sad and Subotica and the section from Belgrade to the Hungarian border. We expect that by the end of 2025, the Hungarian side will complete its section between Budapest and the border with Serbia.”
Brnabic said that Serbia is committed to investing in Corridor X and will discuss upgrading the railway to Thessaloniki and Athens with Greece.
She added that Serbia has also started to upgrade the Niš - Dimitrovgrad section of the main line to Sofia, Bulgaria. Serbia will also explore the possibility of upgrading the Belgrade - Zagreb - Ljubljana corridor to improve links with Austria and Italy.
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