Uzbekistan, Tashkent, May 31 / Trend D. Azizov /
Board of Directors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) today approved a loan of $100 million for reconstruction of the third section of the Husar-Bukhara-Nukus-Beineu (A-380) road of the national highway in Uzbekistan, a government source told Trend on Thursday.
The loan funds will be used to reconstruct the 40-kilometer stretch of road (315-355 km) with the replacement of two-lane asphalt pavement with a four-lane cement concrete pavement.
As previously reported, the Republican Road Fund under the Ministry of Finance of Uzbekistan announced a tender worth $100 million in May for reconstruction of the road section at the expense of the next tranche of the ADB loan. The tender results will be summarized in September 2012.
The loan is the next tranche of loan package of $ 600 million, approved in April 2010 and intended for the reconstruction of sections of the A-380 road for the construction of national highway.
Previously it was assumed that the funds of a loan package will be allocated in three tranches during 2010-2012. In May 2010 the Bank allocated the first tranche of $115 million, in April 2011 - the second tranche of $240 million.
According to a source, after joint consultation between the government and ADB's leadership it was decided to split the funds of the third tranche in two parts - $100 and $145 million to be allocated later for the reconstruction of another section of the road.
A-380 highway with a length of 1,204 kilometers is part of a transit corridor linking Uzbekistan to Afghanistan and Turkmenistan in the south and Kazakhstan - in the north.
Uzbekistan joined ADB in 1995. So far, ADB has approved lending of about 40 joint projects in education and health services, modernization of generating capacity and energy infrastructure, rail and road infrastructure, public utilities, agriculture, finance with an aggregate project cost of more than $ 8.6 billion with a share of ADB financing at more than $ 3.8 billion.