The Minister of Road and Transport Development Mr. Byambatsogt Sandag met with Ms. Zsuzsanna Hargitai, Managing Director of Central Asia for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and exchanged views on ongoing Ulaanbaatar-Darkhan road construction project and further cooperation in transport sector.

The Ulaanbaatar-Darkhan road project financed by EBRD aims to build 2 new lanes to the current road and started construction works in March, 2021.

Minister Byambatsogt Sandag noted the importance of this route for country’s economic development, and he mentioned that this route is a part of Asian Highway Network connecting Asia and Europe. He also explained some delays occurred during the project implementation period due to the impacts of the pandemic and other reasons in the past year, so the Government is paying special attention to this project. During the meeting, EBRD agreed to solve the additional financing of USD 20 million for the increase of the road pavement thickness by 5 cm.

Ms. Zsuzsanna Hargitai raised the bank’s concerns on some issues that may affect smooth implementation of the project such as speedy establishment of the Project Implementation Unit, addressing social impact and work condition related issues of the contractor and asked the minister’s cooperation on resolving the matters. The minister expressed the ministry’s as well as other relevant organizations’ willingness to take all the necessary measures to solve these issues in short period of time.

The minister also briefed on the progress of the project that the main civil works of the Ulaanbaatar-Darkhan road construction project was expected to be completed by October 30, 2022, and the remaining 3 km of road pavement to be completed this week and opened for traffic. He also expressed his belief that the problems along this road caused among the citizens and international transporters will be solved soon.

In addition, the two sides discussed on some of the potential future projects in road and railway fields with the financing of EBRD.