Azernews.Az

Thursday March 28 2024

ADB postpones issuance of funds for North-South project

25 January 2017 15:40 (UTC+04:00)
ADB postpones issuance of funds for North-South project

By Kamila Aliyeva

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) once again postponed consideration of allocating a loan worth $200 million for implementation of the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), as well as for the development of the railway sector in Azerbaijan.

The Bank planned to review the project on April 15, 2017, but the event is postponed to August 25, 2017.

In addition, ADB mission, whose mission is to collect information about the project, should have come to the country on March 11-25 2017, but instead their visit to Azerbaijan was rescheduled to August 1-11.

Allocation of funds for the realization of the North-South project is envisaged within the ADB’s railway sector development program. Azerbaijan Railways CJSC is the executing agency for obtaining the loan.

The funds are also expected to drawn for the development of Baku-Yalama (border with Russia) rail line, which is implemented within the framework of the North-South project.

The North-South transportation corridor is meant to connect Northern Europe to South-East Asia and has a strategic importance for the region. It will serve as a link connecting the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia.

At the initial stage, the North-South corridor will transport 5 million tons of cargo per year with further expansion of transportation to over 10 million tons. Along with making a great contribution to the diversification of Azerbaijan's economy the project is expected to turn the country into a major transport hub.

The project, which is considered to be a strategically important and advantageous in terms of time of transit cargo transportation, is also expected to bring great economic benefits. The route, part of which will pass along the western coast of the Caspian Sea, from Russia to Iran through Azerbaijan enjoys several advantages compared to other transport such as Suez Canal-the Mediterranean Sea-Northern Europe and the Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan-Russia-Northern Europe routes.

Azerbaijan, which became a member of ADB on December 22, 1999, has a 0.5 percent share in the bank’s capital.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

Loading...
Latest See more