Skopje, 12 May 2023 (MIA) – A cornerstone laying ceremony was held Friday marking the start of construction of 39.3 kilometers long Prilep-Bitola motorway section on Corridor X-d.

The project will ensure faster, safer and more economical transportation of people and goods. The construction will encourage new dynamics in the economy and open new job opportunities.

Head of the Public Roads State Enterprise, Ejup Rustemi said that a new era is beginning in which instead of constructing only 5.8 kilometers of highway per year over the past three decades, 23 kilometers of highways will be constructed annually in the next four years and seven months, or a total of 110 kilometers.

“The construction of the X-d motorway section and the three Corridor VIII sections, is the largest capital investment in the country and will represent a turnaround for the country’s development. For the first time after 30 years, with modern infrastructure, we are connecting the country to the East and the West, to new ports in Durrës and Burgas, and we are strengthening the region’s transport connections,” Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski said.

The event was attended by PM Dimitar Kovachevski, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Political System and Inter-Ethnic Relations, Artan Grubi, Minister of Transport and Communications Blagoj Bochvarski, the head of the Public Roads State Enterprise, Ejup Rustemi, the U.S. Embassy Charge d’Affaires, Eric Meyer, Turkish Ambassador Hasan Mehmet Sekizkök, as well as the Bechtel-Enka’s Region President for Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Justin Siberell.