ZAGREB, June 1 (Hina) - Croatia's Finance Ministry, the Croatian Railways (HZ) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have signed a contract on the reconstruction of a railway line within the European Corridor 'Vc'.
ZAGREB, June 1 (Hina) - Croatia's Finance Ministry, the Croatian
Railways (HZ) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have signed a
contract on the reconstruction of a railway line within the
European Corridor 'Vc'. #L#
Under the contract, worth 96.62 million euro, the EIB will grant a
40-million loan, while the Republic of Croatia will secure the rest
of 56.62 million euro from the budget by 2005.
According to a statement released by the Finance Ministry on
Friday, this is the first loan to be given by EIB to Croatia and the
first Quick-Start loan within projects of Stability Pact for South
East Europe.
This project will cover the modernisation of the signal and
telecommunication equipment along the Croatian sections of the
railway corridor Budapest-Osijek-Sarajevo-Ploce.
The Croatian section from the Hungarian border to Samac (Bosnian
border) is 100 kilometres long, and the other section from Metkovic
to Ploce is 23 kilometres long.
According to the Finance Ministry, this is a very favourable loan,
as the grace period is five years with the interest rate LIBOR + 0.25
to 0.30 percent, and the loan should be paid back within 20 years.
(hina) ms