Washington, 29 October 1997 (RFE/RL) - The World Bank has approved a $300 million loan to Poland to help accelerate the modernization of the country's roads which suffered extensive flood damage this year.
Bank project manager Luis Revuelta says the catastrophic floods of July added a "significant and unexpected importance and urgency" to the program of modernization of Poland's basic infrastructure already underway.
The loan will mostly go to repair, upgrade and realign priority roads, reconstruct and upgrade two existing bridges and built three major new ones, along with constructing 12 bypasses around congested cities. Money will also be used to improve road maintenance and promote further privatization of the road contracting industry.