The World Bank’s Board of Directors on Saturday night in Kiev approved a new $432m support package “building resilient infrastructure in vulnerable environments in Ukraine (DRIVE)” aimed at helping the government improve the resilience of the national road network and operational efficiency in the transport sector.
The Bank told Interfax-Ukraine that DRIVE complements the existing Rehabilitation of Essential Logistics Infrastructure and Network Connectivity (RELINC) project, under which modular road bridges have been delivered and 200 flatcars have been manufactured to increase Ukrzaliznytsia’s freight capacity and export capability.
The World Bank noted that Ukraine’s transport infrastructure has suffered significant damage since the war began in February 2022, disrupting key import and export routes. According to the recently published Rapid Damage and Recovery Needs Assessment (RDNA4), road infrastructure has suffered the most in the transport sector, with 58% of the transport sector; 30% of state roads and bridges, 11% of local roads and bridges, and 17% of municipal roads suffering significant damage.
DRIVE financing includes a $212 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) under the ADVANCE Ukraine (ADVANCE Ukraine) Trust Fund, which was supported by the Government of Japan. The financing also includes a $210m loan from the Special Programme for the Reconstruction of Ukraine and Moldova (SPUR) and a $10m grant from the Ukraine Support, Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reform Trust Fund (URTF).
The project will be implemented by the State Agency for Rehabilitation and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine.
The project page on the Bank’s website notes that it has three components, the first of which is the preservation of the national road network. This component includes two components. The first, a $270.48 million investment for national roads, finances the design, execution and supervision of construction works aimed at maintaining certain sections of national roads in proper operational condition, in particular through operational maintenance, major repairs of roads and major repairs of bridges.
The second component-Reform of National Roads and Road Transport-allocates $90 million for transport sector performance with a results-based approach.
The second component of $39 million is periodic maintenance of the national road network, which also has two components: installation of emergency modular road bridges and climate-smart preservation of key links in the road network.
The third component is technical assistance and project management, which also has two components: technical assistance and project development ($9 million URTF grant), which complements the investment-oriented components, and project management ($1 million URTF grant), which funds eligible costs for implementation and project management support, training and knowledge sharing.