Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Feb. 23
By Demir Azizov - Trend:
The Uzbek Reconstruction and Development Fund allocated a loan worth $280 million to the Uzbekistan Railways for the construction of the Angren-Pap railway line, the railway company told Trend.
This railway line will connect the Fergana Valley with other regions of Uzbekistan.
The loan will be spent on the purchase of necessary machinery and equipment and the mining and construction operations as part of the project, the interlocutor said.
Uzbekistan started construction of the Angren-Pap new electrified railway in summer 2013.
It was reported that the Angren-Pap railway line worth $1.9 billion, with a length of 129 km should run through the Kamchik pass and link the three oblasts in the east of the country - Andijan, Namangan and Fergana - with the remaining part of Uzbekistan. The project envisages the construction of two tunnels.
The project worth $1.9 billion will be financed at the expense of the Uzbek Reconstruction and Development Fund, the state budget, the Uzbek railway company's own funds and loans of the international financial institutes worth $1 billion.
In particular, Chinese Eximbank delivered a loan worth $350 million for the laying of the tunnel for the new line in November 2013.
The China Railway Tunnel Group and Uzbekistan Railways signed a contract to construct a tunnel worth $455 million through the Kamchik pass in September 2013.
The Chinese company must build a 19-kilometer train tunnel by mid- 2016 in accordance with the contract.
The Kamchik pass is on the Kurama Range at 1,200 meters above a sea level.
Through the pass is the only automobile route between the Tashkent region and the Pap district of the Namangan region "Tashkent -Osh" (A -373). This strategically important road is periodically closed in winter because of the threat of avalanches. The new railway should pass along the Uzbek northern border with Tajikistan.
Earlier it was reported that Uzbekistan refused to transport goods to the Ferghana Valley by rail through Tajikistan. The goods have been transported through A- 373 road since January 2010.
The total length of railways in Uzbekistan is 4,100 kilometers. Some 66 percent of cargo turnover in the country and almost 80 percent of a total volume of export and import cargo transportation fall to the railway.
Translated by NH
Edited by CN