The Republican Road Fund under the Ministry of Finance of Uzbekistan announced invitation for prequalification to execution of road construction works at two parts of the road with the extension of 100 km.

In line with the terms, the first contract package will cover road section 1330-1395 km (extension – 65 km). The existing road is under category III (2 traffic lanes) and will be upgraded into category I (4 traffic lanes of 3.75 m wide each). Civil works will also comprise construction of 16 bridges and 2 interchanges, one over railway as well as construction and equipment of 2 weighting stations for axle load control including a set of traffic counters.

The second contract package will cover road section 1400-1410 km and 1426-1451 km (35 km). The existing road is under category III (2 traffic lanes) and will be upgraded into category I (4 traffic lanes of 3.75 m wide each). Civil works will also comprise construction of 13 bridges and 3 interchanges, one over railway.

The announcement said that civil works should meet four-lane International design standard road within the existing right-of-way with asphalt concrete pavement.

Applications for prequalification should be submitted in clearly marked envelopes till 31 March 2011. Prequalification will be conducted through the procedures as specified in the IDB’s Guidelines for Procurement of Goods and Works under Islamic Development Bank Financing, and is open to all eligible bidders from IDB member countries.

The reconstruction works will be financed due to resources of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) at the size of US$167.2 million, issued to the Government of Uzbekistan in October 2010.

The IDB presented a loan for 20 years with four-year grace period under Istisna’a. This mode is applied in the financing of manufacturing of goods and equipment, as well as in the financing of construction works.

In May 2009, President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov approved a programme on construction of national roads of the first category in 2009-2014. The programme cost is US$2.6 billion.

Within the programme, it is planned to construct four areas of roads on route Beinau-Kungrad-Bukhara-Samarkand-Tashkent-Andijan, Bukhara-Alat, Bukhara-Karshi-Guzar-Termez and Samarkand-Guzar with total extension of 1,501 km.

Within the programme, it is planned to construct 400 km four line cement-concrete roads and 813 km four line asphalt roads, as well as 288 km two-line asphalt roads. The programme envisages construction of 7 transport road junctions and 1,488 km bridges and underpasses.

Uzbekistan became full-fledged member of the IDB since 2003, which unites 56 countries. During its joint work, the bank issued over US$280 million to realization of 19 projects in agriculture, small and private businesses, education and medicine.