At a meeting on Thursday, August 6, the Riga Interim Administration agreed to request loans from the Treasury for the continuation of several ongoing projects, as well as decided to reimburse additional expenses for the company “Rīgas satiksme”.
Loan for transport infrastructure development
Riga Municipality will borrow 1.4 million euros to the Treasury for a period of up to 10 years, which is intended to continue the construction of the Krasta Street cycle path, the Riga Center-Dārziņi cycle path from the South Bridge to Ķengaraga Street, and to rebuild Mežrozīšu Street from Stūrmaņu Street to galam.
This year it is planned to borrow up to 421,153 euros or 30% of the total loan amount, but in 2021 – up to 982,690 euros or 70% of the total loan amount. The repayment term is set at up to ten years, with the principal amount deferred for up to two years.
Loan for improving the energy efficiency of municipal educational institutions
Riga Municipality will also borrow another 5.8 million euros from the Treasury for the implementation of energy efficiency measures in a total of 30 kindergartens and school buildings. The expected term of the loan is planned to be up to ten years with the deferred payment of the principal amount up to two years. The institution responsible for the implementation of investment projects will be the Property Department of the Riga City Council.
It is planned to carry out works in 16 school buildings – Riga Ostvalds Secondary School, Riga Ilguciems Secondary School, Riga 47th Secondary School, Riga 31st Secondary School, Riga 93rd Secondary School, Riga 88th Secondary School, Riga 75th Secondary School, Riga 89th Secondary School, Riga Imanta Secondary School, Riga 84th Secondary School, Riga Jugla Secondary School, Riga 86th Secondary School, Riga Rīnūži Secondary School, Riga State 3rd Gymnasium, as well as two buildings of Riga 4th Primary School.
Also, energy efficiency improvement works are planned for 14 pre-school educational institutions – kindergartens “Laimiņa”, “Zilbīte”, “Zvaigznīte”, “Mežrozīte”, “Bizmārītes”, as well as Riga 252, 267, 232, 244, 233, 66 ., 123, 210 and 223 pre-school educational institutions.
“Rīgas satiksme” will compensate the losses
At this, the 23rd meeting of the Riga Interim Administration, it was also decided to allocate another 906,705 euros in compensations to the municipal company “Rīgas satiksme” from contingencies in the expenditure program. These losses to “Rīgas satiksme” have occurred due to the precautionary measures imposed on public transport in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“These losses result from the fact that we carried a very small number of passengers, ensured all distance restrictions and other requirements, including disinfection,” explained Džineta Innus, Chairman of the Board of “Rīgas satiksme”.
Previously in various Covid-19 related compensations “Rīgas satiksme” already received 2.3 million euros. Consequently, the total amount of compensation issued by the municipality to this company this year exceeds 3 million euros.
Representatives of the Riga City Council pointed out that during the emergency situation, the revenue from ticket sales decreased significantly for Rīgas satiksme, as the flow of passengers decreased by 75% due to restrictions, as well as the revenue from parking services decreased significantly. Additional costs were also incurred due to the need to disinfect vehicles and provide transport for repatriation passengers.
Article: On compensation for “Rīgas satiksme”Kristaps Feldmanis
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“In April, March, when there was an outbreak of Covid-19, these forecasts regarding the duration of the emergency and the losses that will occur to” Rīgas satiksme “when transporting relatively empty vehicles were different and amounted to 2.2 – 2.5 million euros per month. that the compensation of only 3.1 million euros is considered to be relatively good.This money is given to them to continue the operation as a whole. “Rīgas satiksme” calculated the decline in ticket revenue during this period, additional expenses incurred. We – the finance department – did not accept the previous time that it is necessary to separate losses related to public transport from, for example, parking operations, which also caused them losses, but the municipality is not obliged to compensate it, “explained Uldis Rakstiņš, head of Riga City Council Finance Department.
The City Council administration hopes that for the time being new compensation will not have to be paid to Rīgas satiksme, but the company’s management does not rule out the possibility that it will have to ask for municipal assistance to compensate for the June losses.
“Yes, of course for June we will calculate all the costs. June is a bit different, as the number of passengers started to rise from the end of May. However, this volume is still very small compared to what we could transport with such volume of transport on a daily basis, ”said Innusa.
The Riga City Council’s interim administration also decided to allocate 35,405 euros to the Welfare Department to cover municipal social care institutions and contracting organizations (social service providers) for purchased protection and disinfection products related to disease prevention measures to limit the spread of Covid-19 during an emergency.
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