DUSHANBE, April 16, 2010, Asia-Plus — The Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (Gorno Badakhshan or GBAO) has not had overland communication with other part of Tajikistan for five days as flood caused by torrential rain destroyed the bridge over the Obi Niyov River in Shuroobod district, Khatlon province on April 12, Ismonqul Shoqulov, director of the unit for implementation of the Shagon-Zighar road construction project, told Asia-Plus on April 16.
According to him, the work on rehabilitation of the bridge is under way.
Shoqulov says the bridge had been built in the Soviet time already and it was reconstructed in 2003, when the first phase of the Shagon-Zighar road construction was launched. According to him, reconstruction has allowed to increase the bridge capacity to 70 tons.
“A new 260-meter bridge will be built there when construction of the Kulob-Qalai Khumb road starts,” said he, “the Kulob-Qalai Khumb road construction project is expected to be launched in September this year.”
In the meantime, the Khaburrabot Pass connecting Gorno Badakhshan to the central part of the country and Dushanbe via the Rasht Valley is still closed for traffic. The Khaburrabot Pass will be opened for traffic only in May and the Dushanbe-Kulob-Khorog highway is still the only overland communication between Gorno Badakhshan and Dushanbe.
