DUSHANBE, July 27, 2009, Asia-Plus — Specialists estimate that another 6 million US dollars are needed to complete the Istiqlol Tunnel that links the northern Sughd province to the central part of Tajikistan, Ismonqul Shoqulov, the director of the unit for implementation of the Shogun-Zighar road construction project, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, the Government of Iran will provide these funds that will go to financing installation of lighting and ventilation systems of the tunnel. “To this date, Iran has provided 1 million dollars of this amount,” Shoqulov said.
The Istiqlol Tunnel, better known among the population as the Anzob Tunnel, has been built with assistance of Iranian specialists and in accordance with an agreement reached between President Emomali Rahmon and his Iranian counterpart, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in 2008, further $6 million are provided by Iran for completion of work on ventilation and lighting of the tunnel.
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 preferential loan worth US$21 million to Tajikistan. The tunnel makes the highway from Dushanbe to Khujand open fro traffic the whole year round and drops the transit time by four to five hours.
An official opening ceremony of the Istiqlol Tunnel was held in July 2007; however, there are still some uncompleted works.
