Azerbaijan, Baku, 10 January/corr. Trend I. Khalilova/ The Japanese Bank for International Cooperation have issued a tender to improve the water supply and sewerage system in five cities of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan's ASPI Consulting Firm said.
The feasibility study of the project was developed by a Tokio Engineering/ASPI consortium. The Japanese bank agreed to expand a list of districts to be included in this project. Although a preliminary feasibility study was developed with the consideration of six districts, the number of regions increased to 10 (Shamakha, Salyan, Neftchala, Barda, Guba and others.) in line with the agreement. In addition, Azersu has not yet defined the volume of contractor work.
The Japanese Bank grants credit at the rate of $240 000 000, but ASPI says that the additional investments are required due to the price rise.
The government suggested the bank increase the list of cities to 10, but additional technical studies are to be conducted in the new cities, or the bank would finance the project together with the WB. However, JBIC did not wait for this to take place and decided to determine the contractor on five cities.
The credit agreement between the government and the JBIC is expected to be signed after February when the project is approved by the Board of Directors of the Japanese Bank. The bank also offers to allocate a loan at a rate of 0.14% for the reconstruction of the sewerage system and 0. 5% for the water supply. Softening conditions for the sewerage system is explained within the cost of the service, which is expensive in Azerbaijan for water. The water supply system improvement envisages building of the water intake, its treatment, delivery and distribution, and on there sewerage system transportation, cleansing and throwing
The Board of Directors of JBIC may approve the project at the beginning 2008 and there are plans to begin the relevant work in October 2008.