November 7 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's government is considering extending the deadline for the construction of a second track of the Divaca-Koper railway line to 2028 from 2025, the managing director of the state-owned project company, 2TDK, Pavle Hevka, said.
The government plans to propose amendments to the law on the construction of the second track to finance the project without the participation of countries in the hinterland of Koper port and 2TDK to take over the investment management, Hevka said in a video file posted on the website of public broadcaster RTV on Saturday.
2TDK plans to finance the project through a fresh loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB), he noted.
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 ($200 million) into the capital of 2TDK, in order to increase it to 522 million euro. Currently, the Slovenian government owns the entire 322 million euro capital of 2TDK.
Last month, 2TDK said it is in talks with EIB for a second loan to cover the increase in the cost of raw materials for the project. "Loans of up to 250 million euro have already been approved for the project by the EIB in 2019, and 2TDK is in intensive talks with the bank regarding the fulfillment of conditions for concluding a fresh loan agreement," the company said.
2TDK also said it is preparing a second amendment to the investment programme for the project to reflect the price increases of building materials and energy products.
The second track of the railway should be built in 2025, and the line should be opened in 2026. The project envisages the construction of a 27 km second track, 75% of which consists of tunnels. The total value of the project was initially estimated at 1.2 billion euro.
($ = 1.0013 euro)