Azerbaijan, Baku, March 9 / Trend A.Akhundov /
A mission of the World Bank (WB), headed by project manager in transport sector, Jacques Byure started today a review of ongoing road projects in Azerbaijan, the WB Baku Office told Trend on Friday.
The mission will continue its work until March 16.
The mission of the bank will get acquainted with the progress of work under the project to expand Baku-Shamakhi-Mugan highway from a two-lane to the four-lane and under the second road project, which includes the modernization of the third Alat-Masalli highway and Hajigabul-Bahramtepe road.
The World Bank (WB) and the Azerbaijani Transport Ministry signed a loan agreement on a project to expand the Baku-Shamakhi-Mugan Highway from two to four lanes in Aug, 2010 in Baku.
The bank allocated $241.6 million to finance the project in the form of mixed credits - $70 million will be funded by the WB International Development Association (IDA), and $171.6 million will be provided by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The remaining funds will be provided by the state.
The total project cost is $356.15 million. The rest of the funding - $184.55 million will be provided through the state share in the project.
Baku-Shamakhi-Mugan is 122 kilometers in length. A total of 101 kilometers will be built within the project. The remaining section of the road has already been constructed.
The second road project was approved by the WB Board of Directors on Jan. 17, 2006. The first component includes modernization of the third highway Alat-Masalli, rehabilitation of Kurdamir-Ujar section, existing highway Baku-Georgian border, rehabilitation of existing highway Baku-Shemaha, reconstruction of highways of Tagiyev-Sahil settlement (bypass of Baku) and rehabilitation of several neighbor roads.
The first WB credit, within this road project, totaled $200mln- which was allocated on terms of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (for a period of 20 years with a grace period of four years and libor+0.5 percent interest rate). The Government of Azerbaijan allocated $65mln for the first phase of the project.
The bank allocated $175 million for the Hajigabul-Bahramtepe road project in the 2009 fiscal year, of which 63 million were provided on concessional terms. The length of the highway is 116 kilometers. The total cost of the project is about $ 200 million.
The total cost of the second road project is more than $1.027 billion.