Slovakia has finally signed a deal with the Granvia consortium governing the financial terms under which the consortium will build a stretch of the R1 highway linking Nitra and Tekovské Nemce, Lubomir Vážny, the minister of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications told the TASR newswire on Friday, August 28.
According to the deal, the public-private partnership (PPP) project for the R1 dual-carriage way will cost over €1 billion, including €915 million needed for construction and €127.4 million for maintenance and operational costs over 30 years.
It was agreed that Granvia will contribute €149 million to the project and borrow the rest from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and twelve private banks including the Royal Bank of Scotland, Erste Bank and Dexia, with Slovakia providing loan guarantees.
The government will start making the payments as of September 2011, when it expects sections I and II between Nitra and Beladice to have been completed. The last stretch, a northern bypass around Banská Bystrica, should be completed in July 2012. TASR
Compiled by Jana Liptáková from press reports
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