Azerbaijan, Baku, March12 / corr. Trend N. Ismayilova /
Next week the World Bank (WB) mission will begin the formal talks on loan agreement within the third main project project to expand the Baku-Shamakhi-Mugan Highway from two to four lanes, WB Baku Office said today.
Formal negotiations on the draft credit agreement are expected to be held in mid-March. Jacques Brue is expected to visit Azerbaijan for the talks. The office said that this visit will be the final phase in the preparation of the project, within which final terms on the loan and details of the project will be agreed. As a result of the mission the project will be submitted WB board for approval before the end of June.
"The total cost of the project is 293 million dollars. The bank is likely to allocate a mixed loan of $246 million," the office said.
The project will be funded by the International Development Association (IDA), which is part of the WB, for Azerbaijan's quota for 2010 fiscal year amounting to $70 million, and $176 million at the expense of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The remaining 117 million dollars falls to Azerbaijani Government, the bank's Baku office reported.
The length of Baku-Shamakhi-Mugan is 124 kilometers. Its construction has an estimated worth of $90.11 million. Initially, construction work worth 72.09 million dollars planned to be carried out at the expense of the WB, and 18.02 million dollars - at the expense of the Azerbaijani side.
The Italian company Todini Costruzioni Generali S.p.A is the project's general contractor. The Finnish company Finroad is the project consultant.
Azerbaijan became a WB member in 1992. During this period, the bank approved the provision of loans worth $2.5 billion to finance 47 projects.