Donor: EBRD
Budget: 498,840 EUR
Project Description:
The Corridor VIII is one of ten trans-European corridors which connect the Adriatic and the Black Sea. The main alignment of Corridor VIII runs from the southern Italian ports of Bari and Brindisi, through the Albanian ports of Durres and Vlora, the cities of Tirana, Skopje, Sofia, Plovdiv, to the Bulgarian ports of Burgas and Varna (Black Sea). Rail Corridor VIII has connections at various points with Rail Corridors X, IV and IX.
While the corridor is relatively well-established from Sofia to the Black Sea, there are a number of missing links along the 586 km between Durres-Skopje-Sofia, which accounts for about half of the total rail corridor length. Within fYR Macedonia, 152 km of the rail infrastructure in Corridor VIII is constructed and operational. About 90 km remains to be constructed on the eastern section between Skopje and Bulgaria, and about 66 km on the western link with Albania.
The overall objective of the project is to undertake a feasibility study and Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), in line with IFI, EU and Macedonian requirements and assist the Macedonian Ministry of Transport and Communications in the preparation of the financing of the eastern section of Rail Corridor VIII (Kumanovo-Beljakovce-Kriva Palanka- Deve Bair, Bulgarian border).
Eptisa’s main tasks and responsibilities on this Feasibility Study for the eastern section of Corridor VIII and ESIA project include:
- Reviewing current situation of project implementation;
- Preparing traffic and revenue forecasts;
- Selection of preferred alternatives;
- Development of preferred alternatives;
- Economic and financial evaluation for the selected alternative;
- Preparation of feasibility study;
- Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA); and
- Assisting in drafting the application for requesting the financial sources.
For further details related to this project please contact: Mr. Andreja Todosijevic, Project Director, e-mail: atodosijevic@eptisa.com