Of the 150 new electric buses, the first 100 go to Skopje, and until that quota is filled, no buses will be delivered to any other municipality. Mayor Orce Gjorgjievski confirmed it, citing Minister Nikoloski and the prime minister. The procurement, he said, is finished, the contract is signed and the delivery clock is running.

The City of Skopje, the public transport company JSP and the power distributor EVN are now preparing charging infrastructure at three points: by the New Railway Station, in Avtokomanda and in Gjorche Petrov. And here comes the less festive part of the story. "In some places we are talking about an old grid that cannot handle the capacity, so we are going in with a grid renewal, and in some places substations will have to be installed to make it work," Gjorgjievski explained.

In other words, the buses have been ordered, and the grid that is supposed to charge them is still being rebuilt. The mayor insists the crews are already in the field and that the city will be ready when the first batch arrives. Will the substations get there before the buses - or will brand-new electric buses sit in a garage waiting for power that isn't there?

At the same briefing Gjorgjievski also talked about the Cvetan Dimov boulevard in Chair, where a tender is expected by the end of the year. The main design and project documentation are being prepared, which is the Municipality of Chair's job, while the City of Skopje has to secure the money and carry out the expropriation. The project, the mayor says, will first be presented to residents. A pedestrian crossing near Bit Pazar is also in the works.

Skopje has been waiting a long time for better public transport, and the new buses will be electric and quieter. But if the first batch ends up parked in a depot while everyone waits for a substation, we will have one more story in which the state bought the solution before it prepared the ground for it.