ADB’s Board of Directors has approved a US$28 million equivalent loan and US$22 million grant from its concessional Asian Development Fund for a second rehabilitation project on the Bishkek-Torugart Road. The Government of Kyrgyz Republic will provide counterpart funds of US$12.5 million for a total project cost of US$62.5 million.

The funds will be used to upgrade 75 kilometers of two-lane road, to build a border control facility and to provide training and skills development for road engineering graduates of local universities. The new project is the second phase of an ongoing rehabilitation program for the road, funded by ADB. ADB is the country’s main development partner in the road sector, providing assistance of nearly US$280 million for infrastructure since 1996.

Goods moved along the Bishkek-Torugart Road account for about half the Kyrgyz Republic’s total trade with PRC. It traverses three of the country’s poorest provinces, where many people rely on it to transport goods to market. Large sections of the road however are in poor condition, resulting in long travel times and high operating costs.

“Rehabilitating the road will increase the speed and reliability of passenger and freight flows, it will give better market access and business opportunities to people living in the corridor, and will help reduce poverty, particularly in Naryn oblast,” said Prianka Seneviratne, Principal Transport Specialist in ADB’s Central and West Asia Department.

The road, running from Torugart on the Kyrgyz border with PRC, to Bishkek near the border with Kazakhstan, is part of one of the main transport corridors of Central Asia. The corridors are a key element of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Program, an ADB-supported initiative designed to strengthen integration and growth opportunities and reduce poverty amongst the eight member countries, including Kyrgyz Republic.

“Improving transport infrastructure and border operations in the Kyrgyz Republic will lower the cost of domestic transport and international traffic, as well as transit traffic, and it supports the objective of increased trade and integration with large markets in South Asia, PRC, the Russian Federation and Turkey,” said Mr. Seneviratne.

The second stage project is due for completion by December 2013, with the Ministry of Transport and Communications appointed to execute it.