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Weekly Lists
November 2, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 24
bne:
Infrastructure
Albania to start construction of Kukes airport in 2019
Construction work at the airport in the Albanian city of Kukes will start in 2019, media reported on October 31, citing Prime Minister Edi Rama.
Tirana International Airport (TIA) is currently the only active air- port in Albania and has been operated by Hong Kong-based invest- ment and asset management company China Everbright Limited (CEL) since October 2016.
However, the authorities plan to open new airports in the coun-
try after the exclusive rights over international flights that TIA enjoyed were removed in April 2016. Recently it was announced that a tie-up of Albania’s Kastrati and Israel-based TMD Systems is set to obtain a concession to operate the idled Kukes airport in north- ern Albania.
The airport in Kukes will be brought in line with international standards and will handle an average 300,000 passengers per year, Albanian Daily News said.
Tajikistan has once again agreed to participate in constructing
a railroad to link the country with Turkmenistan via Afghanistan, reversing its decision in September to pull out of the project. The two sides met on October 26 and agreed to “finish” the project, the Turkmen state-run TDH news agency reported last week.
No explanation was provided for the previous decision to pull out of the project. The U-turn follows Turkmenistan lifting a similarly unexplained road blockade on Tajik goods earlier this month.
The two countries appear to be interested in claiming their piece of China’s huge One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative by establishing
a direct route spanning the nations from China to the Turkmen seaport.
RZD International, a subsidiary of the Russian state-owned railways operator, said on October 30 that it has started the construction of a viaduct on a railway line in Serbia linking Stara Pazova to Novi Sad.
In November, Serbian government agreed to spend €247.9mn on the reconstruction of the Stara Pazova-Novi Sad section of the Belgrade-Budapest line on Serbian territory. The whole project is being implemented by RZD International.
Tajikistan returns to Turkmen-Afghan-Tajik railroad project after pulling out a month ago
Russian RZD International launches construction of railway viaduct in Serbia