Government and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) decided to extend, for the third time, until the end of this year, the drawing interval for amounts belonging to a loan of USD 180 M provided three years ago for infrastructure, ‘Gandul’ reports.
USD 35 M will no longer be contracted with the loan value diminishing adequately. The current officials from Transport Ministry hold their predecessors liable, who did not take actions for using the respective money.
The initial understanding was not observed. Until end of May 2009, disbursements amounting to only USD 51.5 M of the loan were reported. In real terms, USD 18 M was spent in 2007, and only USD 24 M were spent in 2008. These were in spite of the fact that the maintenance of the national roads and railways is poor and important funds are required. More than half of the national roads have their normal life span exceeded. On the other side, out of the 20,000 km of inland railways, 38 per cent have the capital repair deadline exceeded. The situation is similar for 60.5 per cent of rail bridges, 39 per cent of tunnels, 86.3 per cent of the total length of the railway and 95 per cent of the railway stations should have had to undergo reconstruction.
previous post
