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ADB prepares road project loan approval in Azerbaijan

Business Materials 21 February 2014 13:16 (UTC +04:00)
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) plans to approve a loan of $45 million in March to finance a project of reconstruction of the bridges on the Agstafachay-Poylu Georgian border road, the bank’s Baku office told Trend on Feb. 20.

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.20

By Ilaha Khalilova Trend:

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) plans to approve a loan of $45 million in March to finance a project of reconstruction of the bridges on the Agstafachay-Poylu Georgian border road, the bank's Baku office told Trend on Feb. 20.

"Negotiations on the project have been completed with the Azerbaijani government and procedural issues remain to be resolved," the bank reported.

The loan will be used for construction of four bridges, one railway viaduct and three bridges across the river and reconstruction of local roads in the city of Ganja located 365 kilometres west of Baku.

"The cost of construction work is planned to be fully covered by the loan and taxes and customs duties expenses will be financed through public funds," the source said.

However, the bank did not rule out the possibility of expanding the coverage of work given the presence of other local roads and bridges requiring immediate construction which may be accomplished by saving credit resources.

As previously, JSC Azeryolservis of the Azerbaijani Transport Ministry told Trend, the construction work of the project is planned to be launched during 2014.

The Agstafachay-Poylu-Georgian border highway was commissioned in January 2014 after reconstruction. The total length is 59 kilometres running with two lanes. The reconstruction of the road began in November, 2011 and ended in December, 2013. As a result of the reconstruction, the road has been transferred from the third to the second technical category.

ADB loan funds are part of the last tranche of the first multitranche financing facility (MFF) package intended for road financing. ADB allocated from this multitranche package for road construction, $400 million for the construction of the Masalli-Astara road which was approved to the amount of $500 million in August 2007. It allocated $55.4 million for financing the part of the work within the project for reconstruction and expansion of the Ganja highway.

The active credit portfolio ADB in the country has reached $1.2 billion.

ADB was established in 1966 and has 67 members. The bank's headquarters is located in the capital of the Philippines, Manila. Azerbaijan joined ADB on December 22, 1999. The country's share in the bank's capital is 0.5 percent.

ADB's leading shareholders are Japan and the United States (31.2 percent of the total share capital), India and China (12.8 percent), Australia and South Korea and Canada (16 percent).

Translated by S.I.
Edited by S.M.

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