The Cabinet of Ministers approved a draft document on obtaining funds totaling USD 560 million from the World Bank for financing development of the road sector on 2 September. The press service of the Ministry of Infrastructure announced this in a press release.
According to the press release, a team from the Ministry of Infrastructure has worked on development of the structure of the relevant project for the past three months, together with the State Automobile Road Service (Ukravtodor) and the World Bank. Originally, the section of the M-03 Highway from Poltava to Kharkov was expected to be repaired. However, the Ministry of Infrastructure has proposed adding the most worn sections of the highway, specifically the transport corridors from seaports to the border with the European Union, to the program.
As a result, they agreed to implement a project for improving the operational status of the following highways: the H-02 Lvov-Ternopil highway (from Lvov to Ternopil), the M-12 Stryi-Ternopol-Kirovograd-Znamenka highway (from Ternopol to Kirovohrad), the M-13, Kirovograd-Platonovo highway (from the M-12 highway to the southern bypass of Kirovohrad), the H-14 Aleksandrovka-Kirovograd-Nikolayev highway (from Kirovohrad to Nikolayev), and the M-14 Odessa-Melitopol-Novoazovsk highway (from Nikolayev to Kherson).
Simultaneously, the Ministry of Infrastructure is seeking funding for direct performance of capital works on these road sections. The possible sources of funding are the future Road Fund, the state budget, and international financial organizations.
The composition of Ukraine’s official delegation and the person that will be authorized to sign the relevant loan agreement with the World Bank will be approved in the near future. Negotiations are expected to take place in the second half of September. After that, the bank’s board of directors will consider the relevant package of documents. In case of a positive decision, the loan agreement will be signed in October this year and performance of the works will begin at the start of next year’s construction season.
This will be the World Bank’s third road project in Ukraine. The first two involved reconstruction of the M-03 Kiev-Kharkov-Dovzhansky highway in the Kiev and Poltava regions.
