Slovenia expects that the second track will find its place among the projects for which the European Commission intends to contribute 13 billion euros. The list will be known on Monday.

In the middle of July it will be known whether Slovenia will succeed in obtaining European funds for the construction of the second railway track from Koper to Divača. The European Commission is about to publish the final results of the tender in which Slovenia participated as well. "On July 6 the European Parliament will discuss the list of proposed projects, and next the chosen projects will be confirmed by the member states," explained Maja Pavlovič from the EC Representation in Slovenia. Nataša Ugrin Tomšič reports for Radio Slovenija that the second track will be built with the help of public-private partnership. The Ministry of Infrastructure is trying to find the suitable model, in cooperation with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In the succeeding days an array of models should be ready, and by autumn the most suitable will be chosen, the Ministry claims.

What will the revision show?

Slovenia also expects from OECD a strategic evaluation of the second track project, and that the tender for revision of the project value, estimated at 1.3 billion euros, will be prepared jointly. The revision, which had already been promised by the former minister, but it had not been made, should give the final disproof, or confirmation of the doubts that the project had been overestimated.

Great interest for construction from abroad

In the meantime foreign investors have already contacted the Ministry, expressing their willingness to participate at the construction of the largest national investment. The Ministry of Infrastructure confirmed that companies from Turkey, Austria, the Netherlands, and China showed interest in construction of the second track. They have already talked to all of them, but the contractor will be found through public procurement.

The Chinese have offered their services several times already. According to some estimates they would be capable to construct the track for 400 million euros. But most certainly they would use their own manpower, and the financing conditions they will propose are still not known.