Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Nov. 21
By Demir Azizov - Trend:
China Corporation for Trade and Economic Cooperation (CNTIC) and Latvian Belam Riga will supply the equipment for the Marokand - Karshi railway electrification in southern Uzbekistan, the Uzbekistan Railways State Joint Stock Railway Company told Trend on Friday.
The company's interlocutor said that the companies won the tender announced in April 2013 with a starting price of $ 51 million.
The tender was announced for the supply of equipment on a "turnkey" basis on transformer substations, contact network, signaling system, centralization and blocking and telecommunication system, SCADA system.
CNTIC won a lot for supply of transformer substations, contact network, Belam Riga - signaling system, centralization and blocking, telecommunication system and SCADA as part of the tender.
The contracts with the winners are expected to be signed within a month.
Uzbekistan Railways started electrification of the Marokand - Karshi section with a length 140.8 kilometers in January 2012.
In total, the $234.7 million project also envisages reconstruction of the locomotive depot in Karshi city (the administrative center of Kashkadarya region) for the operation of the Tashguzar - Bojsun - Kumkurgan new railway line. Plans are to complete the project by 2017.
The project is being financed with a loan from the Asian Development Bank in the amount of $100 million, with funds of the Uzbek government in the form of customs and tax benefits totaling $23.8 million and the equity of Uzbekistan Railways State Railway JSC in the amount of $110.9 million.
The total length of Uzbekistan's railway is 4,200 kilometers, some 1,000 kilometers of which have been electrified, including over 700 kilometers in last seven years. In total, it is planned to electrify about 2,000 kilometers of railways in the country.
Around 60 percent of cargo turnover and 80 percent of the total volume of export and import cargo in Uzbekistan fall to its railways.
Translated by N.H., L.Z.
Edited by C.N.