KHOROG, March 12, Asia-Plus — Construction of a new bridge across the Panj River will start in GBAO’s Vanj district in late March. The Khorog open joint-stock company (OJSC) Road-Building Directorate # 8 has been granted a contract to construct approach and temporal ramps for building ferry to the beds of the future bridge both on Tajik and Afghan side.
Mavlonazar Ghoibnazarov, an engineer-in-chief with the Khorog road-building directorate, said that a tender for this lot had been held by Aga Khan Foundation’s Mountain Societies Development Support Program (MSDSP) recently. The estimated budget for this project is $789,000, according to him.
The bridge that will be constructed in the Khumroghi area in Vanj will be the fourth of a series of bridges across the Panj River in Gorno Badakhshan that will consolidate permanent overland links between Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
Like the previous three bridges, this bridge will also be built under financial support of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). The first Tajik-Afghan bridge was inaugurated in Gorno Badakhshan on November 3, 2002.
