NIB to finance infrastructure development in Vilnius

NIB and the City of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania and its largest city, have signed a loan agreement totalling EUR 20 million for financing the city’s investment programme planned for 2009.

The loan has a 15-year tenor and is earmarked for projects in municipal road building. One such project will be a bypass road south of the city, as part of the international transport corridor IXB, linking Kiev and Minsk, via Vilnius, to the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda on the Baltic Sea. The road will help significantly reduce the flow of transit traffic through the city.

The NIB loan will also be used for financing the upgrading of the Vilnius public transport fleet. The city plans to replace 100 buses and 70 trolleybuses with new ones complying with EU environmental regulations.

This is the first loan NIB has extended to the Lithuanian capital. NIB’s involvement in financing a municipal investment programme in Vilnius is aimed at facilitating the further economic development of the city.