President Shavkat Mirziyoyev instructed to develop, jointly with the World Bank, a technical assignment for transferring the airports of Tashkent, Bukhara, Fergana and Urgench to management under a “package principle” (when unprofitable airports are transferred together with profitable ones).
Shavkat Mirziyoyev said this at a presentation devoted to expanding public-private partnership (PPP) in the fields of energy, transport, utilities and healthcare on August 5, the presidential press service reported.
According to the analysis of international experts, the modernization of airports in Uzbekistan will require an average of $ 800 million.
At the end of May 2019, the Russian Novaport Holding and the government of Uzbekistan signed an agreement on the implementation of an investment project for the modernization and development of the airports of Samarkand, Namangan and Urgench. It was later reported that negotiations with Novaport had reached an impasse because the government did not agree to give the airports on a 30-year concession, as requested by the investor. In early February, the Minister of Transport Elyor Ganiev, commenting on the situation, said that foreign companies would be involved in the management of airports through a call for bids.
At the presentation, Shavkat Mirziyoyev also noted the absolutely unsatisfactory the steps taken in the PPP in the field of transport and logistics. He underscored that the development of this area will require US$ 27 billion.
Today the road from Tashkent to Andijan through the Kamchik pass takes 5-6 hours, 22 thousand cars pass along the existing road. In the next 5 years, this figure will reach 40 thousand. With the launch of the Tashkent-Andijan toll road, the distance will be reduced to 3 hours, and the throughput will increase by 70%, the sttament said.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev stressed the importance of developing design documentation and announcing a tender for the construction of a new tunnel through the Kamchik pass.
The construction of two toll tunnels under PPP terms - on the Kamchik and Takhtakarachi passes, as well as three toll roads - bypassing the cities of Syrdarya and Bakht (Syrdarya province), Tashkent-Samarkand and Tashkent-Andijan - was envisaged by a presidential decree dated December 9, 2019.
