The City of Skopje has begun preparing the infrastructure for 100 new electric buses. The works cover routes, chargers and, most importantly, a stronger power supply at the bus depot in Avtokomanda, where enough capacity has to be secured to charge the entire fleet. Chargers are also planned at the railway station and in Gjorche Petrov, and EVN will have to step in on part of the works.

"We are doing this so that when the first bus arrives we are ready and there is no delay whatsoever," says Mayor Orce Gjorgjievski. To claims that the buses have already been built while Skopje lags behind, he replies: "There is a delivery deadline. The buses cannot be finished the moment the public procurement ends." The preparations, he says, should be completed while manufacturing is under way.

The history of this procurement explains why the delay question is being asked at all. The Transport Ministry is buying 150 electric buses and 75 charging stations in total - 100 for Skopje, 50 for other municipalities. The first tender was annulled in May by a ruling of the State Appeals Commission for Public Procurement. In the repeated procedure in July, the lowest bid came from Hungary's Ikarus Electric together with EVN: around 3.12 billion denars excluding VAT. There were four bidders, and two bids reached the electronic auction. Delivery is staged: 30 buses within six months, another 60 within 12 months and the final 60 within 18 months.

And here is an ambiguity worth noting. The mayor says the first 30 buses should arrive in Skopje by New Year. But the procurement terms do not specify how much of each stage goes to the capital and how much to the other municipalities. So either Skopje takes the entire first consignment, or "by New Year" is an optimistic reading of the calendar. Nor does anyone say exactly when the six-month clock started running.

The buses are part of a larger map Gjorgjievski sketches in the same interview: a BRT linked to the city train at the railway station, field works for the BRT in 2027, the underground road from Kisela Voda with its first phase finished and full operation "by the end of 2028 or the start of 2029", and a tender for two prefabricated multi-storey car parks on the Mother Teresa hospital grounds by mid-October. Skopje's transport policy is currently a list of deadlines.

The real test is simple: will the chargers and depots be ready before the first batch of buses arrives, so that they are not left parked while the system catches up? The public transport company's fleet is worn out and new buses are needed. The question is whether the city can keep pace with the factory - or whether the factory will end up waiting for the city.