Lithuania. AB Lietuvos gelezinkeliai
| Date of agreement: | 25 Jun 2013 |
|---|---|
| Country: | Lithuania |
| Customer: | AB Lietuvos gelezinkeliai |
| Amount in EUR: | EUR 114 million |
| Maturity: | 19 years |
| NACE sector / loan type: | Land transport |
This loan contributes to climate change mitigation: 100%
Project
The loan has been provided for investments in the railway infrastructure. The investment projects are co-financed from the EU funds and programmes. The currently implemented stage of the infrastructure development programme, as part of the future regional Rail Baltica railroad project, is focused on the construction of 115 kilometres of a European-gauge (1,435 mm) railroad track from the Lithuanian-Polish border to the city of Kaunas in southern Lithuania. The new track will be built parallel to the existing wider-gauge (1,520 mm) track without land acquisition for up to 120 km/h design speed.
The programme also includes the reconstruction of a 60-kilometre wider-gauge stretch from the city of Šiauliai to the Lithuanian-Latvian border in the northern part of the country for up to 120 km/h design speed.
The loan will also finance the renewal and modernisation of parts of Trans-European East-West corridor, branches Kiev–Minsk–Vilnius–Klaipeda and Kaunas–Kaliningrad, and North-South corridor Tallinn–Riga–Šiauliai–Taurage–Kaliningrad. These corridors cover about 90% of all railway transit cargo and about 70% of the railway passenger transportation in Lithuania.
The programme includes a number of smaller-scale subprojects, such as the reconstruction of railway sections, building second tracks, installation of a signalling system.
AB Lietuvos gelezinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways) is a state-owned company that administers the public railway infrastructure and provides freight and passenger transportation services. Lithuania’s total railway network is 1,767 kilometres. The main commodities transported on rail through Lithuania are oil and its products as well as mineral fertilisers.
Fulfilment of NIB's mandate
Competitiveness: The projects are aimed at improving the country’s railway infrastructure. The main benefits are higher speed, larger capacity of the infrastructure, improved safety and reliability. The estimated value of annual time savings in passenger and freight transportation is EUR 1.6 million and EUR 5.5 million, respectively. These savings are based on estimates for 2015 and 2016. The value of time savings might increase considerably in the coming years. Lower costs of transportation, particularly in freight traffic, will improve market efficiency across sectors in the Baltic region.
Environment: Railway transportation is far more environmentally efficient than most other modes of transport. Assuming that the added rail traffic replaces road transport, extensive reduction of greenhouse gases emissions are expected as a result of the project.
Sustainability summary
Key environmental issues connected to the subprojects include land issues, the generation of noise, contamination and the drainage of surface water. NIB has concluded that AB Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai has a reliable internal system for ensuring all necessary environmental and social considerations are taken adequately.
