Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan.16 / Trend I.Khalilova /
A mission of the Islamic development bank (IDB) led by head of the department of water resources and ecology Kamal Belhaj will start its visit to Azerbaijan to inspect implementation of the project to improve water supply and sanitation systems in six regions from Jan.23, representative of the IDB in Azerbaijan Tamerlan Taghiyev told Trend on Monday.
This a preparatory mission, which will continue its work till Jan.29, Taghiyev said.
The total cost of the project in accordance with the feasibility study is $270 million intended to restore water and sanitation systems in Astara, Dashkesan, Terter, Gedabek, Samukh and Gazakh regions.
The IDB plans to finance 74 percent of the total cost of the project to reconstruct water and sanitation systems, to replace water-purification facilities and to treat waste water.
A $200 million loan for Azerbaijan was approved by IDB to implement this project in September, 2011.
Under the project tender for purchase of consulting services to consideration and approval of work projecting has already been announced. These consulting services, as well as services on implementing control over construction, will be purchased by tender among consultants of the IDB members.
Financing of these projects is envisaged under the cooperation program for 2011-2013, which included initially two projects on water supply and sanitation systems. The bank planned to allocate about $110 million per each project, however later the decision was made to merge the two projects into one.
Azerbaijan has been member of the Islamic Development Bank since 1992 and IDB portfolio for Azerbaijan amounts to $700 million allocated to implement projects in different spheres of economy.
The Islamic bank changed its approach toward financing projects in Azerbaijan increasing the maximum credit sum for one project by almost 5 times. If earlier the IDB set financing limit of one project at $30-40 million now the bank will be able to allocate up to $150 million.