Kazakh Railway to borrow $105 mln to build fiber-optic link
AO Kazakhstan Temir Zholy National Co., the country's state-owned rail company, plans to borrow $105 million to build a fiber-optic link for its telecommunications unit and to improve rail network performance, Bloomberg reports according to RZD-Partner.
The railway will take a $55 million 10-year loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and another $50 million loan from a group of commercial banks, Astana-based Temir Zholy said today in an e-mailed statement. Loan documents will be signed on Aug. 10, the company said.
The fiber-optic network will be built alongside Temir Zholy's main cargo routes, which span 4,700 kilometers (2,920 miles). The network, which should be in operation by early 2010, will boost development of AO Transtelecom, Temir Zholy's telecommunications unit, as well as improving the efficiency of its rail operations, the company said.
Temir Zholy operates a 14,000-kilometer track network covering the world's ninth-biggest country by territory. The monopoly will spend about 890 billion tenge ($7.4 billion), including 200 billion tenge it plans to borrow, to finance track and train upgrades through 2012, it said on Feb.7.
The railway monopoly also plans to borrow $141 million from ABN Amro Bank NV to finance construction of a locomotive- production plant, Yelena Lobanova, head of Temir Zholy's corporate finance department, said by telephone.