The European Investment Bank (EIB), the long-term financing arm of the European Union (EU), will provide a further €45 million loan under its "Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership” (FEMIP), for the light metro network in Greater Tunis, Tunisia.
The network will be EIB’s first partnership with Société des Transports de Tunis (STT), the newly created entity set up by the Tunisian authorities in early 2003 by the merger of Société du Métro Léger de Tunis (SMLT) and Société Nationale de Transport (SNT).
This operation will finance the five-kilometer westward extension of the existing light rail-based public network in Greater Tunis, together with the additional rolling stock and capacity improvements necessary to serve the expanded system.
A further component of the project is the replacement and strengthening of life-expired track and power supply equipment of the Tunis - La Goulette – La Marsa (TGM) railway serving the northern coastal suburbs of Tunis.
This investment is a follow up of the €30 million loan signed in December 2000 for the construction of a new light metro line in the Tunisian capital to serve the south of the El Mourouj district. The project will increase the coverage of rail-based public transport within Greater Tunis, which represents some 20 percent of the country’s population with two million inhabitants.
Scheduled for completion in 2007, the investment will improve the quality and accessibility of public transport for the majority of people without access to private cars, and will help to curtail the growth in travel by private car. The project will help to maintain the attractiveness of public transport and therefore contribute to an overall improvement in the quality of urban life in the capital. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
