10:33 01.04.2015

Half of World Bank's loan to reconstruct Poltava-Kharkiv highway to be sent to repair roads

2 min read
Half of World Bank's loan to reconstruct Poltava-Kharkiv highway to be sent to repair roads

Ukraine and the World Bank have agreed that $400 million out of an $800 million loan provided by the bank for the reconstruction of the Poltava-Kharkiv highway will go to repair existing roads, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

"We with Natalie [Jaresko, Finance Minister] met the World Bank director. The bank gives $800 million for the Poltava-Kharkiv highway, and we agreed that we will divide the sum 50% to 50%. The half will go to the Poltava-Kharkiv highway, and the half will go to repair of existing roads, as the state of the roads in the country is awful," he said.

The premier said that the same scheme will apply to the EUR 100 million loan from Poland.

"I talked to the Polish prime minister. Poland provided EUR 100 million to Ukraine, and we agreed with Ewa Kopacz to divide EUR 100 million in two parts and send EUR 50 million to road construction, first those roads that approach border entry points [between Ukraine and Poland]," Yatseniuk said.

As reported, the World Bank in late January 2015 confirmed its plans to invest $800 million in the Third Secondary and Local Roads Project – the Poltava-Khariv section of M-03 Kyiv-Kharkiv-Dovzhansky highway.

It was planned that the project will have two phases. The first is the improvement of road infrastructure on a 130-kilometer section. The second is the organization of measures aimed at increasing road safety, maintaining the state of roads and introducing the car weighing complex.

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