  Fast radio bursts remain one of the most enigmatic astrophysical sources.
Observations have significantly progressed over the last few years, thanks to
the capabilities of new radio telescopes and the refurbishment of existing
ones. Here we describe the upgrade of the Northern Cross radio telescope,
operating in the 400-416~MHz frequency band, with the ultimate goal of turning
the array into a dedicated instrument to survey the sky for fast radio bursts.
We present test observations of the pulsar B0329+54 to characterize the system
performance and forecast detectability. Observations with the system currently
in place are still limited by modest sky coverage ($\sim 9.4$~deg$^2$) and
biased by smearing of high dispersion measure events within each frequency
channels. In its final, upgraded configuration, however, the telescope will be
able to carry out unbiased fast radio burst surveys over a $\sim 350$~deg$^2$
instantaneous field of view up to $z \sim 5$, with a (nearly constant) $\sim
760 \, (\tau/{\rm ms})^{-0.5}$~mJy rms sensitivity.
