The EU is allocating €175.6m to Montenegro to help it rebuild the 39km-long Bar to Golubovci railway line in the south of the country.

The upgrade – costing €230.8m in total – aims to improve train speeds, safety, and reliability, and boost the line’s capacity to 1.3 million passengers and 1.85 million tonnes of freight a year.

Most of the EU’s contribution, €112.6m, is a grant under the Western Balkans Investment Framework. The rest is a €63m loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

To get to €230.8m, the London-headquartered European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending €50m, while €5.2m will come from Montenegro’s government.

The rail corridor links Belgrade to the Port of Bar and the Western Balkans to Central Europe.

It will form a segment of Rail Route 4 of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor of the Trans-European Transport Network, also known as TEN-T.

Technical support for the project was undertaken by the European Commission and the EIB advisory programme, Jaspers.

Robert de Groot, EIB vice president, said: “This investment is another tangible step toward aligning Montenegro’s core infrastructure with EU standards and accelerating the country’s path toward accession.

“With these latest agreements, EIB Global’s support for the transport sector in Montenegro will reach a total of €500m, directly improving regional connectivity, boosting trade and tourism, and helping to create a more integrated common regional market.”