October 4 (SeeNews) - The project for the overhaul and electrification of the around 100 km-long Nis-Dimitrovgrad railway line in Serbia will cost a total of 260 million euro ($306 million), the head of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Regional Representation for the Western Balkans, Dubravka Negre, said on Wednesday.
The European Union (EU) has already approved a 75 million euro grant for the project, while the remainder of the sum will be provided by the Serbian government and the EIB, Negre said, as quoted in a statement by the Serbian infrastructure ministry.
EIB has invested a total of 1.5 billion euro in the development of the Serbian railway infrastructure in the last 15 years by providing loans with a repayment period of between 25 and 30 years and interest rates standing well below the average, Negre said on the sidelines of a meeting with Serbian infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic.
In May, Negre said the EIB plans to invest 36 million euro this year in the overhaul of the railway between Nis, in eastern Serbia and Dimitrovgrad, at the border with Bulgaria.
The Serbian government estimated last year the total investment needed for the reconstruction of the Nis-Dimitrovgrad railway at 195 million euro.
($=0.848897 euro)