The European Investment Bank (EIB) announced its support for the second stage of the West Metro construction project in Espoo. EIB President Werner Hoyer signed the loan agreement for the first EUR 100 million on his official visit to Finland.
“Projects like this show that what EIB does has a direct effect,” said EIB President Hoyer. “As an EU bank, our objective is to improve people’s quality of life, and improving the public transport of cities fits the bill. Faster and better traffic connections make people’s daily lives easier by much more than they come to think.
“West Metro extension in Espoo is not only an investment into public transport but also into the entire labour market region of Southern Finland. West Metro is a growth and development corridor that improves connections to Espoo’s southern parts and connects the entire area to the Helsinki metropolis,” said Espoo’s City Manager Jukka Mäkelä.
The EUR 100 million tranche is part of a total approved facility amounting to EUR 450m, the remaining part of which will be signed over the course of 2017. The loan for the second stage of West Metro will complement the EUR 450 million loan for the first stage that was provided in 2011.