Business news

MINSK, 3 October (BelTA) – The Belarusian Transport and Communications Ministry intends to implement several transboundary projects with Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania, BelTA learned from Belarusian Transport and Communications Minister Anatoly Sivak on the sidelines of the Belarusian Transport Week on 3 October.

The official reminded about the recently implemented project to electrify parts of the railroad from the Belarusian city of Molodechno to the Belarusian-Lithuanian border. Now trains can use electric power to travel from Minsk all the way to Vilnius.

Anatoly Sivak said that negotiations are in progress with Ukraine to determine when the electrified railway line from Gomel to Chernigov can be connected. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development now offers its support for the project. The bank suggests using the approach, which was used for a transboundary project between Armenia and Georgia. “It is important for both sides to finance such projects. We may be able to use this mechanism in relations with Ukraine,” noted the official.

According to the official, a memorandum was signed with Polish colleagues in 2016. The memorandum provides for connecting motorways in Belarus and Poland. Once the M6 Minsk-Grodno motorway is reconstructed, it will be a premium quality road while there will be a motorway of a lower quality on the Polish side. The memorandum specifies when the relevant work will be done on the Polish side to rectify the situation. The situation is the same as far as the motorway from Brest to Warsaw is concerned. Besides, the reconstruction of the M10 Gomel-Kobrin motorway is about to begin using a public private partnership scheme. Two four-lane motorways will reach the Polish border as a result. “Thus, there will be a bottleneck on the Polish side. Our colleagues understand it and are making the relevant plans,” added Anatoly Sivak.

The minister also said that work is in progress on joint projects in the sphere of water transport, in particular, with Ukraine and Lithuania, and in the sphere of construction and reconstruction of railway bridges and automobile ones.