Plans have been made to sign a loan contract in the near future with the European Investment Bank to reconstruct the M7 motorway, which connects Minsk with the Lithuanian border, BelTA learned from Alexander Golovnev, Head of the Central Office for Automobile Roads of the Belarusian Transport and Communications Ministry, on 18 July.
Asked whether the reconstruction of the M7 motorway has been authorized, the official said: “No. The final decision has not been made yet. The matter is being discussed. An agreement has been reached with the European Investment Bank. The Board of Directors has decided in favor of adding the project to the credit portfolio. We’ve run into certain problems justifying the need for investments into specific class of the motorway. Reconstruction in compliance with the first-class or second-class motorway standards is being discussed. I think the matter will be settled this month and we will be able to move on to signing the loan contract with the bank.”
As reported earlier, in December 2017 the European Investment Bank approved the first project in Belarus – the reconstruction of the M7/E28 motorway and the automobile checkpoint Kamenny Log at the Belarusian-Lithuanian border. The European Investment Bank has been working in the Eastern Partnership region for more than ten years. EaP countries have borrowed €8 billion from the EIB for projects relating to the infrastructure development, private sector, and climate change. Since November 2016 Belarus has been on the list of countries eligible for EIB external lending. Belarus and the bank signed a framework cooperation agreement in May 2017. It was ratified by the Belarusian parliament in late June.
