Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, April 23 / Trend H. Hasanov /
One of the major projects in Turkmenistan, construction of a drainage and communication tunnel near Ashgabat, is nearing completion, the engineer at Interbudmontazh Construction Association (Ukraine) Alexander Lukovets said in an interview with the Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper.
As stated by the newspaper, related facilities are currently under construction as well, including waste galleries, dug wells and operational areas.
"To date, 38,000 metres of horizontal drainage systems have been drilled as well as over 13 and almost nine kilometres of the tunnel comprising a three-and six-metre diameter respectively," the Ukrainian specialist said.
According to him, the Turkmen capital's communications will be hidden in a six-metre tunnel and collector-drainage, waste and sewage water will pass through several sectors where an upper compartment will position the infrastructure for operational experts.
The purpose of the construction of this tunnel is the lowering of groundwater by six metres which will strengthen the earthquake resistance of the Turkmen capital and its environs.
Lukovets also remarked that the company had constructed "kilometres of water units, water mains, sewers and high pressure gas pipelines, as well as a number of various water treatment and pumping facilities, including four pedestrian underpasses" in 2001 in Ashgabat and the surrounding area.
"Today, we are preparing the follow up projects that are still in the process of development," he said.
In July last year, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov instructed the company to speed up construction of the communications drainage system maintained by Ukrainian Interbudmontazh in the capital. This issue was discussed at a government meeting.
It was reported earlier that the Ashgabat's mayor's office planned to sign an additional agreement with Interbudmontazh for design work associated with the completion of construction of a drainage and communication tunnel, facilities for waste treatment with a capacity of 300,000 cubic meters per day, mudflow wire and a power station with a capacity of 110/10 kW, 25 megawatts, in the northern part of Ashgabat.
Construction of the aforementioned sites should be completed in October 2015. Ukrainian Embassy in Turkmenistan has previously published on its website that Interbudmontazh has started implementation of the project in Ashgabat under the previous contract on construction of a drainage and communication tunnel with total value of $358 million, including the cost for the first phase of $204 million (with length of 16.5 kilometers and two drainage collectors with total length of 7.4 km) and the cost for the second phase of $154 million.