TASHKENT
Two major Russian companies have provided loans to Uzbekistan to purchase trains for the capital’s metro.
Russia’s Eximbank provided 24.4 million euros at an annual rate of 0.51 percent, while VEB.RF, one of Russia’s largest investment companies, loaned 30.4 million euros at an annual 1.85 percent to the Central Asian country to buy metro trains produced by Russian Transmashholding, the largest manufacturer of locomotives and rail equipment in Russia.
The VEB.RF loan will be due in 2031 and Roseximbank in 2032. Uzbekistan will set aside 8.7 million euros from the state budget for the project’s implementation. The government has already approved the project’s feasibility study.
“We see great potential for the implementation of joint projects with VEB.RF and the National Bank of Uzbekistan related to the financing of the supply of Russian high-tech equipment to Uzbekistan,” Tatyana Sakharova, Eximbank’s board deputy chairman, said in a statement.
The agreement on financing the supply of Russian municipal and other special equipment to Uzbekistan was reached during a Russian business mission to the country in September 2020.
The cost of the rolling stock is 50.7 million euros. The rest will be spent on components, loan insurance, finance costs, customs clearance.
The first five trains will be delivered to Uzbekistan this summer. Russian engineering company Metrowagonmash will produce the new metro cars, which will form 10 trains of four cars each.
The cars are equipped with inter-car passages of a modular design with a through passage for the unhindered movement of passengers in the train, double-leaf reclining-sliding doors 1.4 metres wide with external light signalling of open and closed states.
The service life of metro cars and frames is 30 years. The windshield of the driver’s cab will be equipped with an adjustable manual sunscreen, taking into account the peculiarities of the Tashkent metro – some of the Tashkent metro lines run above ground.
Metrovagonmash already delivered five train sets to Uzbekistan in 2019.