January 13 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's government extended the deadline for the construction of a second track of the Divaca-Koper railway line by six months to the middle of 2026 from the end of 2025, a document posted on the government's website showed on Friday.
The government also increased the investment value of the remaining works to 1.027 billion euro ($1.116 billion) from 940 million euro and excluded the opportunity of receiving financing from countries in the hinterland of Koper port, according to the second amendment of the investment programme posted on the government's website.
In October, state-owned project company 2TDK said it is in talks with the European Investment Bank (EIB) for a second loan to cover the increase in the cost of raw materials for the project. "Loans of up to 250 million euro have already been approved for the project by the EIB in 2019, and 2TDK is in intensive talks with the bank regarding the fulfillment of conditions for concluding a fresh loan agreement," the company said.
Under the original investment plan, Slovenia would build the second track through a public-private partnership involving countries that use Koper port combined with European funds. So far, Hungary has been the only country showing interest in the project. According to Slovenian media reports, Budapest expressed interest in injecting 200 million euro into the capital of 2TDK, in order to increase it to 522 million euro. Currently, the Slovenian government owns the entire 322 million euro capital of 2TDK.
The second track of the railway should be built in 2025, and the line should be opened in 2026. The project envisages the construction of a 27 km second track, 75% of which consists of tunnels. The total value of the project was initially estimated at 1.2 billion euro.
($ = 0.92281 euro)