(ANSA) - BRUSSELS - The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending 55 million euros to finance the construction of a new 1.8 km twin-track railway tunnel in Ukraine on the Eastern Partnership regional network to improve transport connections between the country and the European Union.

The new tunnel, located in the Carpathian Mountains at Beskyd in south-west Ukraine, will replace the existing single-track tunnel, which is the only single track section of the line on the otherwise twin-track electrified corridor between Lviv and the Hungarian and Slovak borders. After completion, the new tunnel will add significant transport capacity at a notorious bottleneck on an international rail corridor and make it possible to cope successfully with the expected future demand.

The Beskyd railway tunnel, according to EIB, is a priority project located on the Eastern Partnership transport network, endorsed on 9 October 2013 by the Transport Ministers of the EU Member States and Eastern Partnership countries and the European Commission. This project represents an example of cooperation between the EIB and its partner financial institution the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which is cofinancing the construction of the Beskyd Tunnel with the EIB and Ukraine.

The EIB has to date signed loans in Ukraine, including the current one, totalling some 2.1 billion euros for projects in the energy, transport and water sectors, and - indirectly through commercial banks - operations supporting SMEs. (ANSA)