December 1 (SeeNews) - The European Commission said it will invest 109.03 million euro ($129.8 million) in the construction of the second track of the Divaca–Koper railway in Slovenia.
The funds are being provided under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) blending call launched in February this year, the Commission said in a statement on Thursday.
According to the EC, Slovenia had originally applied for 163.5 million euro in CEF funding, while the total cost of the project is 545.1 million euro.
In September, Slovenia's government announced it can move ahead with its plans to build a second track of the Divaca–Koper railway following a referendum, during which over 53% of voters pledged support for the project.
The call for a referendum was launched by locals who demand relocation of the existing track and construction of a new two-track line.
The existing Divaca - Koper line does not meet the standards for the core network which were adopted by the Council of the EU in 2012 and are expected to be implemented by 2030.
When the second railway track becomes operational, the distance covered by freight will be reduced from 44.3 km to 27 km on the Divaca–Koper section, the journey time will decrease from 43–48 minutes to 15–21 minutes, train speed will increase to 100 km/h and the capacity of the railway connection will increase to some 220 trains per day, the government said earlier.
($=0.8397 euro)