Bulgaria and North Macedonia build border tunnel on Corridor VIII
- Location
- Gyueshevo (Bulgaria) – Kriva Palanka (North Macedonia), border area near Kyustendil/Kumanovo · 🇧🇬 Bulgaria
- Project
- Gyueshevo–Kriva Palanka border tunnel (Corridor VIII)
- Investment
- No separate figure for the border section itself; overall Corridor VIII (road + rail, both countries) around EUR 5 billion per press reports
- Status
- Under construction / tendering (target year disputed, range 2028–2030)
The cross-border railway tunnel between Gyueshevo (Bulgaria) and Kriva Palanka (North Macedonia) is about 2.4 km long (half on Bulgarian territory) and forms part of Corridor VIII (Western Balkans-Eastern Mediterranean corridor) linking Sofia and Skopje. The bilateral construction/operation agreement was signed on 6 November 2025 and ratified by both parliaments; as of March 2026 the 23.4 km North Macedonian section Kriva Palanka-border (22 tunnels, 52 bridges) was roughly 30% complete, while tendering was underway for the 2.4 km new-build Gyueshevo-border section on the Bulgarian side. Bulgaria's transport ministry cites 2030 as the target year for the full Sofia-Skopje connection; earlier reports also mentioned 2028 for the tunnel section itself, but no firm opening date has been fixed.
Source: new.mia.mk ↗ · Archived copy ↗
Evidence: one source · archived copy saved · second source missing (two-source rule) · How well sourced is Eurotrack?
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