On March 14, Tajik Minister of Transport Azim Ibrohim met here with top managers and specialists of Iranian companies engaged in repair and reconstruction of the Istiqlol Tunnel.
The press center of the Ministry of Transport (MoT) says the First Deputy Minister Transport of Tajikistan Rahim Bobozoda, the Director of the Directorate of Enterprises under Construction Shujoat Sirojzoda, the Engineer-in-Chief of this Directorate Abdumannon Kholiqov, the Chief Accountant of this Directorate Sulaimon Orifov, the Director-General of Iran’s Farab Group Mohammad Haidari, the Head of the Farab Group Board of Directors Seyyed Mustafa Hashimi, the representative of Farab Group in Tajikistan Seyeed Askari, the Deputy Head of the Board of Directors of Iran’s Sangab Company Ehsanan Ahaniyan and the Head of the Istiqlol Tunnel Construction Milad Shams Pirzadeh.
The main objective of the meeting was in discussing conducting technical supervisions, analysis of the current construction process and implementation of the agreement on the second phase of the Istiqlol tunnel project.
Tajikistan and Iran signed this agreement in January 2021. This agreement was inked by Azim Ibrohim, Minister of Transport of Tajikistan, and Ali Vakili, CEO at Farab Group of Companies in Dushanbe on January 20, 2021.
During the recent meeting in Dushanbe, the parties reportedly agreed to complete repair and restoration work as quickly as possible.
It was decided that the Working Group would take efforts to intensify work in this direction, according to the MoT press center.
Recall, an official source within the MoT told Asia-Plus in early August 2023 ODUSHANBE, August 7, 2023, the Istiqlol Tunnel is expected to be fully completed by September 9 that year, the 32nd anniversary of Tajikistan’s Independence. According to him, these works were originally planned to be completed by the end of November 2022, “however, due to objective reasons, the project implementation period was extended.”
Additional 11 million US dollars were reportedly allocated for the completion of the tunnel (Tajikistan and Iran reportedly allocated 5.5 million US dollars each).
The work on the completion of the tunnel reportedly included installation of the systems of ventilation, lighting, safety supervision and firefighting.
The Istiqlol Tunnel, better known among the population as the Anzob Tunnel, was built with assistance of Iranian specialists. The construction of the tunnel has been conducted by the Iranian company Farab Group, which had earlier cooperated with another Iranian company named Saber International in carrying out the construction project.
The Istiqlol Tunnel is a five kilometer long tunnel located 80 kilometers northwest of Dushanbe. It connects the Tajik capital to Tajikistan’s second largest city, Khujand.
It is also a transit route between Dushanbe and Uzbekistan’s capital, Tashkent. Previously, especially during the cold seasons, a lack of a direct link between northern and southern Tajikistan led to disruptions of commerce. 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.
An official opening ceremony of the Istiqlol Tunnel was held in July 2007; however, some parts of the construction have been left half-finished.
According to Iranian media reports, the tunnel was constructed in three years, “costing US$60 million.”
