Page 26 - bne_newspaper_April_13_2018

Weekly Lists
April 13, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 26
bne:
Infrastructure
Albania's second airport to open in autumn 2018
Slovenia likely to hold second referendum on Koper-Divaca railway expansion on May 13
The idled airport in the northern Albanian city of Kukes is expected to start operations by this autumn, Prime Minister Edi Rama said on April 6.
Albania’s air transport sector is on the verge of opening up. Ti- rana International Airport’s exclusive rights to international flights was cancelled in 2016 and there are now plans to turn a reopened Kukes airport into a low cost airport, as well as for the construction of a new airport in Vlora.
Kukes will mainly offer low-cost flights and will be the second oper- ational airport in the country. “I am very optimistic that the airport will start operating in autumn,” Rama said during a conference call with members of the Kukes local authorities.
The second referendum on Slovenia’s largest infrastructure project will likely be held on May 13 after the Constitutional Court rejected an appeal against the date, Slovenian Press Agency (STA) reported on April 11.
The €1bn project to expand the rail link between the port of Koper and the inland hub of Divaca was the cause of Prime Minister Miro Cerar’s downfall. Cerar resigned on March 14 after the Supreme Court annulled the September 2017 referendum that gave the go-ahead to the project because of the use of budget funds to finance the government’s campaign.
The appeal was filed by Vili Kovacic, a pensioner and the head of the Taxpayers Standing Our Ground group. Kovacic says he will continue to fight against the law on the project until it is “wiped off the face of the earth”.
The first container train sent along the Lodz to Chandu route has passed through Kazakhstan’s Altynkol station and the dry port of the Khorgos-Eastern Gate special economic zone on the Kazakh- Chinese border, the press office of Kazakhstan’s national rail company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) said.
The 41-foot container train, which is scheduled for regular travel in the future, will support China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative. OBOR seeks to expand Central Asia’s interconnectivity via construction of infrastructure that will allow the region to become a transit hub for Chinese goods exported to Europe.
First container train sent along Poland– China route enters Ka- zakhstan