English
In an interview with Newsmax Balkans, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Nikoloski said that he expects the VMRO candidate Orce Gjorgjievski will easily win in the mayoral race in Skopje at the coming local elections. Gjorgjievski was endorsed today by architect Misko Ralev, who was the runner up in the race for the SDSM nomination, making the task for SDSM’s candidate Kaja Sukova even more difficult.
I’ve known Orce Gjorgjievski for a long time, and I had the honor to have him as head of my campaign in 2020, at the 4th electoral district. He thoroughly modernized Kisela Voda as its Mayor and he will have the support of the Government so that we can do many great things in Skopje. I think that we need to start with the basics, such as hygiene, cleaning the city up, fixing public transportation and introducing new modes of transportation such as a city wide train network and tram lines, Nikoloski said.
Regarding the work in his Transportation Ministry, Nikoloski said that the planned fast north-south railroad line can be built by 2031, with two tracks from the border with Greece to the border with Serbia, but one of the tracks can be finished as early as 2029.
The line will cut short travel times from Skopje to Solun to 1.5 hours and Skopje to Belgrade to 2 hours. But of much greater importance will be the cargo transit, with freight trains going at 120 kilometers per hour. This will greatly speed up the transit of goods and the annual revenue, without considering the freight for the Macedonian economy, will reach 120 million EUR. This means that the railroad will pay for itself, the Deputy Prime Minister added, saying that the line will cut short transportation times for goods to Western Europe by between 22 and 27 days, moving the deliveries from ports around the Rhine to South-East European ports. The line will be used to allow the citizens of Kumanovo, Veles, and then Kavadarci, Negotino, Stip and Kocani get to and from Skopje quickly, reducing the car transportation frequency.
