OREANDA-NEWS. August 07, 2012. When you are a passenger on a metro train, what you want to see is a speedy, reliable service. What you do not want to see is water dripping from the tunnel walls, which is currently the case for the Yerevan metro, reported the press-centre of EBRD.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has teamed up with the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the EU’s Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF) to help the Yerevan metro with this significant rehabilitation and upgrade project.

The EBRD is providing a sovereign loan of EUR5 million to be co-financed by an EIB EUR 5 million loan tranche and an investment grant from the NIF of the same amount.

This project is Phase II of the Yerevan metro rehabilitation project. Phase I has also been financed by the EBRD, EIB and NIF, with a total of EUR 15 million committed in 2010 to improve safety, sustainability and energy efficiency of the metro.

The metro is one of the main means of transport in the capital, with services at peak times every five minutes. In 2011, over 17 million passengers used it. Yerevan, with over a million inhabitants, needs to keep its metro in good working order. The metro system upgrade will put a special emphasis on dealing with the water ingress problem in the metro tunnel as well as improving passenger safety.

“Together, we are upgrading the most affordable, environmentally friendly and energy efficient means of public transport in Armenia – the metro in Yerevan”, says Valeriu Razlog, head of EBRD Office in the country.

The project has also received technical support from the Government of Austria to support procurement (EUR 600,000) and the EBRD’s Shareholder Special Fund to identify solutions to the water ingress problem (EUR 950,000), for ticketing reform (EUR 460,000) and to implement a public service contract (EUR 135,000).

Kurt Bayer, EBRD director for Austria, says: “Yerevan’s metro system can be made more effective in relieving traffic congestion in this crowded city. Austrian trust funds are directed to projects which improve the life of citizens and the environment, and the Yerevan metro project will do both”.