Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Feb. 26 / Trend, D. Azizov /
Uzbekistan Railways State Joint Stock Railway Company will direct $326.7 million to implement projects of developing and upgrading the railway industry, the company told Trend today.
The company intends to implement 16 projects at a total project cost of $4.272 billion in 2013, including four new construction projects worth $2.837 billion and 12 modernization and reconstruction projects worth $994.3 million.
The largest projects to be implemented by Uzbekistan Railways this year, include the construction of a 129-kilometer railway line, the "Angren-Pap" worth $ 1.9 billion, the electrification of the "Marokand-Karshi" railway (140 km) and the "Karshi-Termez" (325 km) for a total cost of about $ 600 million, the creation of a repair depot of rolling stock at "Casting and Mechanical Plant" in Tashkent worth $120.2 million and the purchase of passenger and freight locomotives worth $ 67 million.
Uzbekistan Railways will direct $284.1 million of its own funds, $32.6 million in loans from international financial institutions, $10 million from the Uzbek Fund for Reconstruction and Development to finance the work to implement the projects.
Uzbekistan Railways was formed in 1994 after the withdrawal of the Central Asian Railway and is state owned.
In Uzbekistan, the total length of railways is 4,100 kilometers. Some 66 percent of freight turnover within the country and almost 80 percent of export and import cargo are carried by rail.
According to official statistics, the transportation of goods by railway increased by 4.8 percent to 62 million tons in 2012, cargo turnover grew by 1.6 percent to 22.85 billion tons per kilometer.
The number of passengers carried by railway increased by 7.4 percent to 16 million, passenger turnover increased by 14.4 percent up to 3.461 billion per passenger kilometer.