Azerbaijan, Baku, August 4 / Trend E. Kosolapova/
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has teamed up with the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the EU's Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF) to help the Yerevan metro rehabilitation and upgrading, the EBRD reported.
"The EBRD is providing a sovereign loan of €5 million to be co-financed by an EIB €5 million loan tranche and an investment grant from the NIF of the same amount," the bank said.
This project is Phase II of the Yerevan metro rehabilitation project. Phase I has also been financed by the EBRD, EIB and NIF, with a total of €15 million committed in 2010 to improve safety, sustainability and energy efficiency of the metro.
The metro is one of the main means of transport in the capital, with services at peak times every five minutes. In 2011, over 17 million passengers used it. Yerevan, with over a million inhabitants, needs to keep its metro in good working order. The metro system upgrade will put a special emphasis on dealing with the water ingress problem in the metro tunnel as well as improving passenger safety.
The project has also received technical support from the Government of Austria to support procurement (€600,000) and the EBRD's Shareholder Special Fund to identify solutions to the water ingress problem (€950,000), for ticketing reform (€460,000) and to implement a public service contract (€135,000).