DUSHANBE (Avesta news agency) – The head of FEZ administration department of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade Faridun Rozikov reported last Monday that the beginning of the first stage of the free economic zone Dangara, in the south of Tajikistan, is planned for the next year.

According to him, construction work at the facility is completed by 99% and, at present, Chinese specialists are training local staff to work with equipment.

“The continuous operation of the future plant will require a lot of raw materials, which must be stored. The project investor, a Chinese company, held talks in Russia and Iran on the supply of crude oil. After solving all the issues related to the construction and supply of crude oil, it is expected that the plant will start operating next year’, Rozikov summed up.

Earlier in the administration of FEZ Dangara informed Avesta that to start the first stage of the oil refinery it is necessary to stretch the branch line to the plant. According to the source, 1.5 km of rail should be laid from the main thoroughfare of the Kurgan-Tyube-Kulyab railway, which runs through the Dangara district to the future refinery. “The Chinese company Heli, the project investor, agreed with the project institute of the Ministry of Transport of Tajikistan on the development of a feasibility study for the project”, the source said. According to him, the investor undertook to finance the construction of the railway on the principle of private state partnership.

The official construction of the refinery on the territory of FEZ Dangara was started in March 2014. The start date for the first stage of the object was transferred several times. Previously, the refinery was planned to be commissioned in late August 2016, but the plans for the construction of the facility were corrected. Later a new schedule was drawn up, but the first stage of the refinery was not launched in 2017.