Saudi Arabia extended on Thursday a loan to Lebanon to upgrade a stretch of the road between Beirut and Damascus, said reports.
The Daily Star newspaper said that the Saudi Fund for Development, under a low-interest loan agreement signed on Thursday, will give Lebanon 168.75 million Riyals (about $45 million) to help renovate the Beirut-Damascus Highway.
The agreement was signed by fund chairman Ibrahim Assaf, who is also Saudi Minister of Finance and Economy, and the President of the Council for Development and Reconstruction, Mahmoud Othman.
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, Finance Minister Fouad Siniora, Public Works and Transport Minister Najib Mikati and Saudi officials were also attended the signing ceremony at the Grand Serail.
The fund was quoted by the daily as saying the project would finance the implementation of a 15.5 kilometer stretch of the Beirut-Damascus highway from Mdeirej to Chtaura. The work, which will also include several bridges with underpasses, is designed to overcome the traffic jams and slowdowns that result from heavy snowfall during winter and regularly hamper transport between the Lebanese coast and the Bekaa, as well as transit trade with other Arab countries.
According to Reuters, Lebanon has shelved an ambitious Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) project for a 56-kilometer (35 miles) toll-highway between Beirut and Damascus in favor of gradually rehabilitating the existing mountain road with international funding.
The new agreement brings the number of accords concluded between the two sides to 14.
Agreements to carry out four more projects, worth some $45 million, are expected to be signed in the near future, the paper said.
