DUSHANBE, January 30, 2014, Asia-Plus — The issue of providing a loan for construction of the Vahdat-Yovon railway will be solved within the next few days, Tajik Railways (Tajik state-run rail company) top manager Amonullo Hukumatullo told journalists in Dushanbe on January 29.
According to him, they have already met with a Chinese government delegation to discuss issues related to providing the loan to Tajikistan through the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank).
“Exim Bank will provide a 51 million USD loan to Tajikistan for construction of the Vahdat-Yovon railway,” said Hukumatullo. “Negotiations are still going on and the issue will be solved within the next few days” Tajik Railways head noted.
The Vahdat-Yovon railway that will be 46.3 kilometers in length is expected to be built in two stages. The first phase of the project includes construction of 13 kilometers of railway from the railway station Ilyak in the Vahdat district to the railway station Gambuloq in the Roudaki district. The second phase includes construction of a 33.3-kilometer railway from the Gambuloq station to the railway station Yovon-2 that will connect the railways Dushanbe-Vahdat and Yovon-Qurghon Teppa.
We will recall that the present railway link joining the Tajik capital and QurghonTeppa, which is 429 kilometers in length, runs across the territory of Uzbekistan.
The Vahdat-Yovon railway will link the country”s central part with the southern province of Khatlon and will make it possible to shorten the distance by 152 kilometers.
To-date, more than 197 million somoni have been spent for implementation of this project, including more than 50 million somoni spent last year.
The Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) is one of three institutional banks in China chartered to implement the state policies in industry, foreign trade, diplomacy, economy, and provide policy financial support so as to promote the export of Chinese products and services. Established in 1994, the bank is subordinated to the State Council.
The focus of the bank is to promote foreign trade and investment. Exim Bank is not limited though to concessional funding and commercial operations form the backbone of the bank. Commercial activity includes export credits mainly in the infrastructure fields (roads, power plants, oil and gas pipelines, telecom, and water projects) and investment loans for Chinese businesses to establish overseas in the energy, mining and industrial sectors.
