Uzbekistan, Tashkent, April 25 / Trend, D.Azizov /
The Board of Directors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved granting a loan worth $240 million to the Uzbek government for the construction of the national highway, the ADB office in Uzbekistan told Trend on Monday.
The loan has been issued under the program of multitranche funding of the national highway construction, worth $600 million and approved by the bank in April 2010.
The funds will be used to reconstruct sections of the Gusar-Bukhara-Nukus-Beineu Road with a length of 220 kilometers.
The second tranche was granted for the duration of 25 years, including a five-year grace period under the standard preferential rate of the bank based on a LIBOR rate. It will be used to reconstruct an 85-kilometer section of the highway. In February the Uzbek government announced a tender for the reconstruction of the A-380 highway using the second tranche. The tender will be summed up in May.
In May 2010 ADB allocated the first tranche worth $115 million to Uzbekistan.
GP Papenburg Baugesellschaft mbH (Germany) signed a contract worth $86 million with the Uzbek Government to reconstruct a 50-km section of the A-380 highway in Uzbekistan in October 2010.
The programme plans construction of four road sections on route through Beinau-Kungrad-Bukhara-Samarkand-Tashkent-Andijan, Bukhara-Alat, Bukhara-Karshi-Guzar-Termez and Samarkand-Guzar with a total extension of 1,501 km in accordance with the program.
Construction plans include a 400 km section of four-lane cement concrete roads, 813 km of four-lane asphalt roads and 288 km of two-lane asphalt roads. The programme envisages construction of seven transport road junctions and 1,488 km of bridges and underpasses.
The cost of the programme is $2.6 billion.
The project will be financed with resources of the Uzbek Government for $1.68 billion and with credit from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), a credit-line from China to the SCO member states and from other international financial institutes.
In 2007 ADB allocated a $75.3-million loan to Uzbekistan for the reconstruction of three sections of the Gusar-Bukhara-Nukus-Beineu Road (A-380) worth $180 million.
Uzbekistan has been an ADB member since 1995. Today it is the largest recipient of ADB loans in Central Asia. Since 1995, The ADB has allocated over two billion dollars to Uzbekistan to implement 34 projects in the education, agriculture, transport infrastructure and energy modernization sectors.