DUSHANBE, November 14, 2008, Asia-Plus — Work on concreting arch of the Anzob Tunnel, linking the northern Sughd province and the central part of the country, will be finished on November 20, according to press service of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC).
Builders are currently engaged in concerting arch of the ventilation tunnel and it remains to concrete some 454 meters of the tunnel. Every day, builders are concreting more than 66 meters of the tunnel arch. 220 people currently work there; 197 of them are Tajik nationals.
As it had been reported earlier, the Istiqlol Tunnel, better known as the Anzob Tunnel, has still been closed for traffic since September 12.
The tunnel, 5.5 kilometers in length, has been built with assistance of Iranian specialists.
We will recall that Iran’s Saber International has constructed the Istiqlol Tunnel. The total project cost was estimated at 40 million US dollars, and Iran has provided US$5 million in a form of grant and extended a loan worth US$21 million to Tajikistan. The tunnel makes the highway from Dushanbe to Khujand open for traffic the whole year round and drops the transit time by four to five hours.
