Top European bank to increase financing of works for restoration of railway infrastructure in Moldova

Chisinau, 3 November /MOLDPRES/ - The government at a today’s meeting approved a draft cabinet decision on the approval of a draft law on the ratification of the Amendment from 6 October 2021 to the agreement on loan between Moldova and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), in order to carry out a project on the procurement of locomotives and of restructuring the railway infrastructure, signed on 14 November 2014, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.   

Through the Amendments suggested for ratification, decision-makes instruct to increase the sum allocated by EBRD for the rehabilitation of the railway infrastructure from 27.5 million euros up to 51 million euros, of which 49, 750, 000 euros will be earmarked for works of rehabilitation of the infrastructure and 1,250,000 euros for the technical supervision of the works on the railway segment Bender-Causeni-Basarabeasca-Etulia-Giurgiulesti. The period of repayment of the agreement of loan is of 15 years (2017-2032).     

The sum initially borrowed for the works of rehabilitation of the railway infrastructure through the project is 55 million euros, of which EBRD allocated 27.5 million euros and the European Investment Bank (EIB) – 30 million euros. Following the assessment of the costs and the feasibility studies, the two entities agreed that the sums earmarked for the restoration of the railway infrastructure are insufficient, thus intervening with their increasing.   

The increase in the financing of the works for the rehabilitation of the railway infrastructure will contribute to the increase in the volumes of goods and number of passengers carried on the railway infrastructure Tighina-Causeni-Basarabeasca-Etulia-Giurgiulesti, through which most transit of goods from Russia, Ukraine and Romania is carried out.    

Also, the cabinet of ministers at the today’s meeting approved a draft law on the ratification of the Amendment from 18 August 2017 to the agreement on loan between Moldova and EBRD, in order to carry out the project on procurement of locomotives and restructuring the railway infrastructure, signed on 14 November 2014. The main goal of the project is to amend the clause on the type of locomotives planned to be purchased within the project. Initially, the project provided for the buying of multifunctional locomotives meant for tracting passenger railway carriages and freight carriages and as a result of the amendments made, another type of locomotives was specified, meant for the freight transport, which are stronger and give possibility to tract longer and heavier trains in comparison with the technical capacities of the multifunctional locomotives.     

Photo: capital.ro