QURHGON TEPPA, July 16, Asia-Plus  -- Construction of the Dusti-Panji Poyon road is at least 1 ½ months behind schedule because of Uzbekistan’s halting of freight cars bound for Tajikistan, Ibroohim Ismoilov, representative of Japan’s Nippo Corporation in Tajikistan, said.  Nippo Corporation is building this road.

According to Ismoilov, 13 freight cars loaded wit bitumen were supposed to arrive in Tajikistan in March already.  “However they were held up on Uzbek territory for 120 days for some obscure reason,” he said.

Usually, bitumen is transported in cold season, meanwhile, twenty freight cars loaded with bitumen (eight of them belong to Nippo International) arrived in Kolkhozobod district of Khatlon province in the summer heat in July.  “Covers of metal drums were knocked out as affected by high temperatures and bitumen released,” said Ismoilov, “Our five other freight cars containing bitumen are still being held up on Uzbek territory.”

We will recall that Uzbekistan began the rail blockade of Tajikistan-bound freight cars briefly last fall.  It resumed the blockade early this year while publicly opposing construction of Tajikistan''s Roghun hydroelectric power plant.