|
European Bank approves ECU 61 million loan to Budapest for rehabilitation of public transport systems
An ECU 61 million loan to the Municipality of Budapest to improve its public transport system was approved yesterday by the Board of Directors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Mario Sarcinelli, Vice-President of the European Bank, said: "This loan will significantly improve the service quality of the bus and tram system in Budapest. Noxious emissions will be reduced by about 24 per cent. Above all, it will allow the Budapest Transport Company to raise its cost recovery rate and move towards commercialisation."
The loan will be used to replace one quarter of the Budapest Transport Company's bus fleet and upgrade a further one third of the bus engines. In addition, the loan will finance partial rehabilitation of the Millennium metro line and installation of new parking equipment.
Total cost of the project is ECU 173.5 million. The proposed European Bank loan of ECU 61 million will finance 35 per cent of the total costs. A further 27 per cent (ECU 47.7 million) will be financed by the World Bank, and the Budapest Municipality will finance the remaining local costs of ECU 63.8 million (or HUF 6.4 billion) from the Municipal budget.
An additional grant of ECU 1 million will be financed from the European Bank's technical co-operation funds to ensure successful implementation of the investment programme, and to support the introduction of measures to improve the efficiency of the Budapest Transport Company's operations.
|
