Infrastructure Pre-Investment Facility

closed

The development objective of the Infrastructure Pre-Investment Facility (IPF) Project is to facilitate infrastructure investments of strategic importance and/or special complexity, through the mobilization of adequate implementation finance, particularly focusing on energy and transport sectors, consistent with the Government's investment priorities, and the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) objectives. Specifically, the IPF Project will finance technical assistance (TA) to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of investments. The IPF comprises two components: 1) TA for Khudoni Hydropower project (HPP) preparation, to assess its technical, economic and financial viability, and to determine how the hydropower project development would proceed in compliance with appropriate environmental and social safeguards, prioritizing on Dam safety. Should the Khudoni HPP prove to be economically attractive (and otherwise feasible), financial analyses would be undertaken, and issues addressed concerning ownership and power sales. 2) TA for the preparation of transit corridor projects entails two subcomponents: a) TA for the preparation of the East- West Highway improvement, seeks to complete a feasibility study, preliminary design, and environmental assessment to upgrade the road from Natakhtari to Agaiani; b) TA for the preparation of other transit corridor projects shall be determined, dependent upon the availability of remaining funds, following satisfactory results of the above mentioned priority project components. Projects' selection criteria will focus on strategic importance, complexity, and merit.