Albania, Montenegro renew railway cooperation

TIRANA, Aug. 6 – Albania and Montenegro have renewed their railway cooperation which includes the construction of a joint station in Tuzi, a majority-Albanian inhabited town in Podgorica. The deal signed last weekend by Albania’s Transport Minister Sokol Olldashi and his Montenegrin counterpart Andrija Lompar provides details about the procedures the two countries will follow in railway transport as Albania’s only international railway connection.
Albanian railway exchanges around 300,000 tonnes annually through the Elbasan-Durres-Bajze-Tuzi itinerary, making the Vore-Bajze axis the most profitable.
Both ministers also discussed setting up a joint working group to address problems in the Shkodra Lake and deepen the Buna river Bed and the lake in the Shkodra- Virpazar water itinerary.
The acceleration of works to finish national road axis linking the two countries was also on the agenda, said the ministry.
Government says it is seeking an investor to award a concession contract for the country’s poorly-performing public railway sector. In a state of dilapidation and in constant lower revenues for the past 20 years, the state-owned Albanian Railways company has announced it will lay off 20 percent of its staff this year. The cuts are part of a reform aimed at reducing losses in the bankrupt railway sector which costs the state budget more than 500 million lek (around 5 million dollars) each year.