YEREVAN, December 4. / ARKA /. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has released 5 million euro loan to Armenia to carry on the rehabilitation and upgrade of Yerevan Metro. The agreement was signed between the EBRD, Yerevan Municipality, Armenia’s Finance Ministry and “Yerevan Metro after Karen Demirchyan” CJSC on August 3 and ratified by the parliament on December 3.

The EBRD’s sovereign loan will be co-financed by an EIB €5 million loan tranche and an additional investment grant of €5 million from the EU’s NIF by the end of 2012.

The Phase II related drainage tunnel extension investment program is expected to generate significant savings of electricity due to reduced water pumping costs, estimated to be cut by 50 per cent.

The project will enable the Yerevan Metro Company to improve the quality and efficiency of its services as well as strengthen its operational performance and passenger safety conditions. In addition it is now supported by a Public Service Contract. Introduced for the first time in Armenia, the project created a transparent framework for relations between operators of public transport and local authorities.

Operated by the state-owned Yerevan Metro Company, the underground transport system was built in 1981 and currently represents the backbone of public transport in Yerevan. Since then, Yerevan Metro has grown from a four-station system extending 7.6 km to 10 stations over 11 km.

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. Due to lack of major investments in maintaining the network in recent years, the metro’s infrastructure was in urgent need of repair. -0-