ADB specialists to assess current state of road projects in Azerbaijan

On June 20, the mission of Asian Development Bank (ADB) led by Reddy Bathula Balabhaskara, Senior Transport Specialist, will visit Azerbaijan to assess the current state of the ongoing ADB-funded Masali-Astara road project and finalize the documentation for a new loan to finance the project, the ADB Baku Office’s statement says.

During the visit, the Mission will have meetings with Ministry of Transport, "Azeryolservis" JSC, and Ministry of Finance officials. The team will review the institutional, administrative, organizational, technical, environmental, social, economic, and financial aspects of the project.

On June 23, a mission lead by Faraj Huseynbeyov, Senior Project Officer, will inspect the construction of Ganja Bypass road, another ADB-funded project.

"We are very concerned with a slow progress of Ganja Bypass road. In April 2012, the loan should be closed. Therefore, we expect construction works to be completed before December 2011," Huseynbeyov said.

"We will meet the project team, contractor, and consultant to agree on actions to speed up construction of the bypass," he added.

According to agreement between ADB and Azerbaijani government, ADB provided a loan of $55.4 million for rehabilitating 39 kilometers of a two-lane paved road bypassing Ganja, Azerbaijan's second largest city. The project road is a part of the country's primary east-west highway linking the capital, Baku, to the Georgian border. It will meet Azerbaijan's standards for a category II road with a 7.5-meter-wide pavement.


/Trend/