First Vice President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Philip Bennett has expressed hope that the agreement to finance construction of the subway system in Kharkiv will be signed in the fourth quarter of 2017.

One or two more documents are to be received, he said. The Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv is approving the project, and then the project will presented at the meeting of the EBRD board in September. Legal documents will be eventually signed and the realization of the project will start, he said at a meeting with Kharkiv Mayor Hennadiy Kernes on Tuesday.

He expressed hope that the Kharkiv mayor would not object if on June 14 at a meeting with Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman the EBRD representatives tell him about their trip and how they want to speed up the preparation of the project, as it is important, Bennett said.

Kernes said that city authorities met all the conditions.

"The condition for providing the funds to build subway is the guarantee of the sovereign loan by the state. The city has met all the conditions, in particular, co-financing, preparation of the area and provision of all information to technical advisors of the project," Kernes said.

As reported, on December 25, 2014, Kharkiv City Council decided to create a group to manage the investment project on the extension of the third line of Kharkiv subway. It was planned to implement it jointly with the EBRD.

Kharkiv City Council on December 21, 2016 approved the participation of Kharkiv Metropoliten municipal enterprise in this investment project and endorsed taking a loan from the EBRD and EIB in the amount of EUR 320 million.