North Macedonia has selected Israel’s firm Rom Transportation Engineering as a best bidder in a tender for drafting a bus restructuring study for the city of Skopje, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on June 3 in its e-Procurement Portal (ECEPP).

The study is needed for the city of Skopje to implement the trackless track project, for which it signed a €70mn loan deal with the EBRD in April.

The contract was awarded by Skopje’s Public Transport Company on June 1.

"The main objective of the consultant is to assist the City of Skopje in developing a new bus network and related measures to ensure operational efficiency and enable competitive tendering for future bus routes," the e-portal announced.

The duration of the contract, worth over €322,000, is one year.

Rom Transportation Engineering outbid 15 other firms and consortia from EU countries and the UK in the public consultancy tender.

Skopje, one of the most polluted cities in Europe, will become the first city in the Western Balkans to introduce a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).

The project includes the establishment of two BRT lines for fast bus transport to improve the quality of passenger transport services in Skopje in the directions east-centre-west and south-centre-north.

The authorities in North Macedonia announced that the tender for the implementation of the project will be announced in the summer and the project is expected to be ready in 2024-2025.