DUSHANBE, April 27, 2011, Asia-Plus -- Iranian company, Metro, is conducting feasibility study for construction of a Tajik stretch of a rail link that will connect Kashgar (China) and Herat (Afghanistan), Minister of Transport Nizom Hakimov announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on April 27.

According to him, they have prepared all necessary documents for attraction of investments for construction of this stretch of the Kashgar-Herat railroad and the document has been submitted for consideration to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT) and the State Committee on Investments and State-owned Property Management (GosKomInvest).  “We plan to attract, first of all, grants for implementation of this project,” the minister stressed.

“There are many examples when international financial institutions provide grants in an amount of up to 1 billion U.S. dollars,” said Hakimov, “If we fail to attract grants, we will seek loans to build this stretch of the railroad.”

We will recall that Iran has given 1 million U.S. dollars in no-strings aid to Tajikistan for conducting feasibility study for construction of the Tajik stretch of the Kashgar-Herat.  Tajik Ministry of Transport and Iranian company, Metro, signed an agreement on conducting the feasibility study on October 29, 2010.