Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 25
By Taleh Mursagulov - Trend:
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) expects that the work on the reconstruction of the Yalama-Sumgait railway section will begin in early 2019, the Vice President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Wencai Zhang said in an interview with Trend and Azernews.
The vice-president noted that the preparation of tender documents for this work is almost complete, and the announcement of the tender is expected to be made by the end of November.
In addition, Wencai Zhang noted that the ADB is ready to consider Azerbaijan’s request for financing the reconstruction of the southern section of the railway till Astara.
Wencai Zhang said that in December 2017, the ADB approved two loans totaling $400 million for the Azerbaijan Railway Sector Development Program. The program aims to improve rail services and the financial viability of its operators. The funds from the ADB were allocated in two tranches amounting to $250 and $150 million, respectively.
"The first tranche supports railway sector reforms, such as strengthening the corporate governance of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC through, for example, creating a professional supervisory board and improving financial and asset management systems," Wencai Zhang said.
The vice president stressed that the ADB highly appreciates the measures undertaken by the Government of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan Railways CJSC in order to conduct comprehensive reforms in the railway sector and is ready to support their effective and timely implementation and completion.
Some 67 countries, including 48 regional and 19 non-regional countries are members of the ADB established in 1966. The headquarters of the bank is in the capital of the Philippines, Manila city.
Azerbaijan gained membership in ADB on December 22, 1999, the country's share in the bank’s capital is 0.5 percent.
The North-South transport corridor is designed to connect Northern Europe with Southeast Asia, in particular to connect the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia. At the first stage, it is planned to transport along the corridor five million tons of cargo per year, and in the future - more than 10 million tons of cargo per year.