December 12 (SeeNews) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) said on Monday that it is providing additional financing of 50 million euro ($52.85 million) to the Sofia Municipality to support the development of pedestrian mobility infrastructure.
The new loan comes on top of the original 60 million euro framework loan to Sofia Municipality, which the EIB approved in 2021, the European lender said in a statement.
"The loan will co-finance Sofia’s multi-year investment programme of urban development projects, including the construction and rehabilitation of municipal roads, tramways, cycling and walking paths and other urban infrastructure within the scope of the Bulgarian capital’s current Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP)," the EIB explained.
In Bulgaria, the lender has so far financed projects such as the development of Sofia's metro network, the repair of city roads and the upgrade of the public transport fleet, as well as the implementation of waste treatment facilities among other urban and social infrastructure projects.
According to Sofia mayor Yordanka Fandakova the funds will be deployed towards the city's new programme for the construction and renovation of pavements.
"This is one of the most important investments in our neighbourhoods, and will enable us to multiply pavement repair efforts more than ten times over," Fandakova said.
Sofia Municipality applied for the EIB loan in April to finance the refurbishment of 690,000 sq m of pavements. The total cost of the project is 60 million euro, with the balance of 10 million euro to be provided from the municipal budget.
In August, Sofia Municipality called a 200.1 million levs ($108.2 million/102.3 million euro) tender for the maintenance, overhaul and construction of streets and roads in the capital. The EIB agreed the initial loan in 2021, with a view to financing projects such as the construction and rehabilitation of sections of the road and street network, and parts of the tramway, walking and cycling infrastructure of Bulgaria's capital.
($ = 0.945583 euro)
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)