diff --git a/packaging/python/Dockerfile b/packaging/python/Dockerfile
index 95931335cc..b73e7752a2 100644
--- a/packaging/python/Dockerfile
+++ b/packaging/python/Dockerfile
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
-ARG MANYLINUX_IMAGE=manylinux2014_x86_64
+ARG MANYLINUX_IMAGE=manylinux_2_28_x86_64
 
 FROM quay.io/pypa/$MANYLINUX_IMAGE
-LABEL authors="Pramod Kumbhar, Fernando Pereira, Alexandru Savulescu"
+LABEL authors="Pramod Kumbhar, Fernando Pereira, Alexandru Savulescu, Goran Jelic-Cizmek"
 
-RUN gcc --version && python --version
+RUN gcc --version && python3 --version
 
 # install basic packages
 RUN yum -y install \
@@ -13,6 +13,11 @@ RUN yum -y install \
     vim \
     curl \
     unzip \
+    flex \
+    readline \
+    ncurses \
+    mpich \
+    openmpi \
     bison \
     autoconf \
     automake \
@@ -28,47 +33,6 @@ RUN yum -y install \
 
 WORKDIR /root
 
-# newer flex with rpmbuild (manylinux2014 based on Centos7 currently has flex < 2.6)
-RUN rpmbuild --rebuild https://vault.centos.org/8-stream/AppStream/Source/SPackages/flex-2.6.1-9.el8.src.rpm \
-    && yum -y install rpmbuild/RPMS/*/flex-2.6.1-9.el7.*.rpm \
-    && rm -rf rpmbuild
-
-RUN wget http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ncurses/ncurses-6.4.tar.gz \
-    && tar -xvzf ncurses-6.4.tar.gz \
-    && cd ncurses-6.4  \
-    && ./configure --prefix=/nrnwheel/ncurses --without-shared --without-debug CFLAGS="-fPIC" \
-    && make -j install \
-    && cd .. && rm -rf ncurses-6.4 ncurses-6.4.tar.gz
-
-RUN curl -L -o mpich-3.3.2.tar.gz http://www.mpich.org/static/downloads/3.3.2/mpich-3.3.2.tar.gz \
-    && tar -xvzf mpich-3.3.2.tar.gz \
-    && cd mpich-3.3.2 \
-    && ./configure --disable-fortran --prefix=/nrnwheel/mpich \
-    && make -j install \
-    && cd .. && rm -rf mpich-3.3.2 mpich-3.3.2.tar.gz \
-    && rm -rf /nrnwheel/mpich/share/doc /nrnwheel/mpich/share/man
-
-RUN curl -L -o openmpi-4.0.3.tar.gz  https://download.open-mpi.org/release/open-mpi/v4.0/openmpi-4.0.3.tar.gz \
-    && tar -xvzf openmpi-4.0.3.tar.gz \
-    && cd openmpi-4.0.3 \
-    && ./configure --prefix=/nrnwheel/openmpi \
-    && make -j install \
-    && cd .. && rm -rf openmpi-4.0.3 openmpi-4.0.3.tar.gz
-
-RUN curl -L -o readline-7.0.tar.gz https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/readline/readline-7.0.tar.gz \
-    && tar -xvzf readline-7.0.tar.gz \
-    && cd readline-7.0  \
-    && ./configure --prefix=/nrnwheel/readline --disable-shared CFLAGS="-fPIC" \
-    && make -j install \
-    && cd .. && rm -rf readline-7.0 readline-7.0.tar.gz
-
-# create readline with ncurses
-RUN cd /nrnwheel/readline/lib \
-    && ar -x libreadline.a \
-    && ar -x ../../ncurses/lib/libncurses.a \
-    && ar cq libreadline.a *.o \
-    && rm *.o
-
 # NOTE: NMODL transpiler is used in during build step but it requires
 # sympy+python available in order to translate MOD files to C++. But under
 # manylinux container, Python (libpython) is not available and hence we can't
@@ -83,9 +47,7 @@ RUN curl -L -o Python-3.10.0.tar.gz https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.10.0/Pyt
     && make -j altinstall \
     && cd .. && rm -rf Python-3.10.0 Python-3.10.0.tar.gz
 
-ENV PATH /nrnwheel/openmpi/bin:$PATH
 RUN yum -y install epel-release libX11-devel libXcomposite-devel vim-enhanced && yum -y clean all && rm -rf /var/cache
-RUN yum -y remove ncurses-devel
 
 # Copy Dockerfile for reference
 COPY Dockerfile .