site.btaBulgarian Transport Minister: Trip from Sofia to Skopje to Take One Hour by Train after 2025

March 7 (BTA Special Correspondent Antoan Nikolov) - A
train trip from Sofia to Skopje is expected to take no more than
 an hour after 2025, when a project for the construction and
modernization of the railway link between the two capitals is
planned to be finalized, Bulgarian Transport, IT and
Communications Minister Rosen Zheliazkov told journalists here
Thursday. He was speaking ahead of the first meeting of the
Bulgaria-North Macedonia Intergovernmental Commission for
Economic Cooperation.

In the next programming period, Bulgaria and North Macedonia
will each receive 400 million euro for the construction and
modernization of the railway line from the respective capital to
 the border, Zhelyazkov said. A cross-border tunnel between
Bulgaria and North Macedonia is also planned to be constructed,
he added.

Also on Thursday, the Bulgarian Transport Minister met with his
counterpart of North Macedonia Damjan Manchevski, who assured
him that the local mobile operators and regulator in Skopje have
 taken significant steps to reduce roaming charges. "You know
that all three Bulgarian mobile operators have reduced the
tariffs considerably," Zhelyazkov said. According to him, by
2022 mobile operators should have signed bilateral agreements so
 that their networks could offer accessible packages.
 
IG/DS


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