DUSHANBE, October 27, Asia-Plus  -- Traffic along the highway linking Dushanbe to the northern Sughd province will not be suspended in winter, Deputy Transport and Communications, Joumakhon Zuhurov, said.  

According to him, work on concreting the tunnel will have been completed by the end of November and it will be opened for traffic in winter.  

Sobir International, an Iranian construction company, began work on the Anzob tunnel to link northern and southern Tajikistan on December 25, 2004.   

The tunnel is located some 80 kilometers outside Dushanbe.  Iran has provided $21,500 in long-term loan and a $10 million grant in financing for the $40 million project to complete the tunnel, which is considered to be a turning point in Tajik-Iranian relations. 

Excavation works on the Anzob tunnel were completed in March 2006.  The presidents of Tajikistan and Iran, Emomali Rahmon and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, inaugurated the tunnel on July 26, 2006. 

We will recall that the construction of the “Anzob” tunnel began in 1989 but because of destabilization of the situation in the republic the construction was suspended and resumed only in 2003.  In May 2003, Tajikistan and Iran signed in Tehran a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on joint construction of the Anzob tunnel in Tajikistan.  Iran’s Sobir International won a tender for the construction of the tunnel.  

Once the five-kilometer Anzob tunnel becomes operational, it will not only facilitate transportation and direct north-south transit within Tajikistan in the winter season but also drop the transit time by four to five hours.