Lithuania. City of Vilnius

The loan facility has been provided for financing of infrastructure, environmental and energy efficiency projects.

The construction of a bypass road west of the Vilnius city centre is part of the development of the IX Trans-European transport corridor connecting Klaipeda and Kaliningrad to Vilnius and Minsk and road E272 connecting Vilnius to Riga. The western motorway will further integrate the city’s transport system into a broader transport network at the national and European levels.

The NIB-financed investment programme also intends to improve access to Vilnius Airport. The project will link Vilnius airport to the IXB transport corridor, thus redistributing passenger flows and reducing loads on adjacent streets. The reconstruction of the most intensive high-speed street in Vilnius, Gelezinio vilko gatve, is intended to reduce congestion and increase road safety.

The investment programme also includes projects improving energy efficiency at schools, clinics and other public buildings.

Competitiveness: The road infrastructure projects will increase the effectiveness and safety of the road network in Vilnius, resulting in reduced travel time and costs.

Environment: The energy efficiency projects will help to improve the quality of physical facilities and reduce heating costs, allowing more efficient use of municipal resources.

The transport infrastructure projects included in the investment programme are aimed at reducing congestion in some of the busiest city areas by transferring the traffic to newly built parts of the street network. This will result in some reductions in CO2 emissions.

The energy efficiency project is expected to reduce the use of energy in public buildings by up to 40%.