What hampers expanding the Baku-Shamakhi road?

The expansion of Baku-Shamakhi highway has stopped on the 45 km road. The reason is the absence of assessment works and expertise on the state of soil and deeper layers in the area affected by landslides.

As it became known from informed sources, foreign experts and companies that perform the project can not obtain the necessary conclusions from the other partner companies, which are designed to carry out all necessary checks.

The reason is that these companies have been actually owned by the customer of the project, joint-stock company “Azeryolservis”, which gives instructions what to do and how.

For example, a foreign project managers need data on the state of beds at a depth of 100 meters. However, the contractors drill the depth of only 10-15 meters.

In addition, old equipment that does not guarantee accuracy is used for the assessments. However, such equipment is purchased abroad at a very high price.

With such an attitude the road will very quickly become unsuitable for operation, and the executors will bear responsibility. Foreigners understand it well, and do not want to take the risk, to participate in a game of "money laundering". Therefore, foreign experts, invited to the project, very quickly realize that they are engaged in a dirty game, and refuse to participate.

A similar situation occurred at the first stage of this project, when the two-lane reconstruction of Baku-Shamakhi was carried out; 250 million manta were spent, but there was not a significant change happened in the quality of the road. This is still a narrow track, where frequent accidents take place and traffic jams. In many places the asphalt dipped due to landslides, and the road has to be constantly repaired.

Similar sum has been allocated for the second stage of reconstruction, but it seems that “Azeryolservis” will not change the way of work.

According to available information, such an attitude to the project caused dissatisfaction of the Ministry for Emergency Situations, which demanded an explanation from the customer. There is reason to believe that this issue has caused a dispute between the heads of Ministry of Emergency Situations and Ministry of Transport in parliament. People, including journalists, witnessed how the head of the Minister of Emergency Situations expressed his displeasure to the Minister of Transport Ziya Mammadov. According to unofficial information, the Ministry of Emergency Situations does not want to authorize the construction of roads without the appropriate expertise, and the Ministry of Transport Ministry is ignoring b the requirements of the Ministry for Emergency Situations.

Representative of the World Bank told Turan, that the delay with the expansion of highway Baku-Shamakhi is associated with technical problems. These works have not yet begun, although the contract between the parties was signed in May 2011, said Asad Alam, the representative of the World Bank to Azerbaijan, whose mission in Baku has completed.

He explained the reasons by "technical problems".

According to him, to extend the road it is necessary to solve the problem of transferring private and other objects from the curb.

At the initiative of the government, changes have been made in the draft, which "could lead to a rise in price." At present, all questions have been settled, the contractor has been determined, and works will begin soon, said Alam.

A spokesman of "Azeryolservis" Punhan Mursaliyev said Turan, that there are no problems on this project. Works on the construction of 15-45-km motorway go according to schedule.

The length of the existing road, which provides for the expansion project is 30 kilometers (from the post Mushvigabad to the village of Gobustan), and the road will be widened from two-line to four-way. The width of each of the bands (two lanes in each direction) would be 3.75 meters. According to the project, four bus parking, two pedestrian crossings, and four underpasses for cattle, will be built.

* The cost of the first section of the road, set by the World Bank, amounted 37.4 million dollars. It is planned that the construction of this segment will be completed in 24 months.

The contract between the Azerbaijani company "Azerinsaatservis" and the state of "Azeryolservis" under the Ministry of Transport, was signed on 25 May 2011.

Expansion of the road, with the total length of 124 km, is funded by the World Bank loan. In August 2010, the Azerbaijani government and World Bank signed a credit agreement for $ 241.6 million; total project cost is estimated at $ 356.14 million. It is planned to build 121 km of new road. the JSC "Azeryolservis" recognizes that projects on other parts of this highway are unfinished.

In 2007-2010, the first two operating bands (each band width - 3.75 m) were reconstructed at the credit of the World Bank. It was announced that the work cost $ 78 million. The "Azerinsaatservis" was one of the two sub-contractors of the works. 02B/08-