NIB provides new loan to Lithuanian Railways

NIB and the Lithuanian railway company AB Lietuvos gelezinkeliai have signed a new 18-year, EUR 53 million loan agreement for the construction of a European-gauge track and the modernisation of the Trans European east–west corridors in Lithuania.

The loan will facilitate the construction of a 115-kilometre, European-gauge (1,435 mm) railroad track parallel to the existing wider-gauge (1,520 mm) line from the Lithuanian–Polish border to the city of Kaunas. Loan funds will also be allocated for upgrades to parts of the Trans European east–west corridors. The branches Kiev–Minsk–Vilnius–Klaipeda and Kaunas–Kaliningrad carry about 90% of all railway transit cargo and about 70% of the railway passenger transportation in Lithuania.

AB Lietuvo gelezinkeliai’s investment in the modernisation of this railway infrastructure is being co-financed from EU structural funds. This is already the second loan for the purposes of this investment programme. The previous loan, totalling EUR 114 million, was signed in June 2013.

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 measures 1,767 kilometres. The main commodities transported on rail through Lithuania are oil and its related products as well as mineral fertilisers.