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Future Hope in Past Glory
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ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY Rugged terrain, hardy people
The city of Osh in the Kyrgyz Republic nestles in the southern hills of the vast Ferghana Valley, for centuries a bread basket for landlocked Central Asia. Neglect after the late Soviet era, however, left Osh isolated and poor, and road travel slow and hazardous.
Now, a revival of the Bishkek-Osh road is restoring an ancient link and economic hope. Through three projects begun in 1996, ADB is helping rehabilitate 463 kilometers (km) along the vital and rugged 650-km route. A safe, all-weather road will connect the republic’s two main centers of population: the capital of Bishkek in the north and Osh in the southwest.
“Upgrading the Bishkek-Osh road will bring great benefit to Kyrgyz,” says Aplot Abdrazakov, an ethnic Uzbek and owner of 10 trucks and 10 gold teeth. He has been driving the region’s rough roads for more than 25 years.
The Kyrgyz Republic has always been a route on the way to somewhere else, its fortunes dependent upon tying other regions together. Many major roads in this “Switzerland of Central Asia” are offshoots of the ancient silk-trading routes that connected Imperial China to great empires farther west.
MONITORING PROGRESS A Soviet-era tunnel goes modern
Very little has changed. Like Switzerland, the republic is beautiful, rocky, and in control of high mountains separating more powerful neighbors—People’s Republic of China (PRC), Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. Unlike Switzerland, however, the Kyrgyz Republic is poor.
The Bishkek-Osh road is part of efforts to restore some vigor to the economy.
Soon after leaving Bishkek, just south of the border with Kazakhstan, the newly upgraded motorway rises along a branch of the Silk Road and over the 3,586-meter Tyu Ashu (Camel Pass), where for centuries caravans crossed the mountains. Nowadays, travelers rush through a 2.5-km tunnel built decades ago by prisoners in the Soviet era, and refurbished in the second project phase.
After completion of the third project— upgrading sections in Jalal Abad and Osh provinces, which will be done in a year and a half—the road will serve more than 2 million people in four of the country’s seven provinces. It already unites residents of the two regions of the country, and links Central Asia’s agricultural heart to Kazakhstan and to Russia farther north.
GOODS FOR SALE More traffic will mean more profit for roadside stops
At a roadside stop known locally as “Little Paris” because it is at the center of things, Baktybek Kydyratiev hopes to profit from truckers plying the route.
When the road was upgraded, Mr. Kydyratiev opened a stall in “Paris” selling groceries and drinks to passing motorists. He had failed to find much work in his wife’s village in the high-mountain valley of Susamyr. Now, after paying rent and other charges, he clears 1,500 som ($34.87) a month. “It is not much, but it is more than we could make in the village, and the business will grow.”
A test of success will be traffic volume and the willingness of the Government to maintain the road. Truckers grumble about punishing “unofficial” tolls they have to pay, and some worry those tolls will discourage traffic on the route. (The only official tolls are at the Tyu Ashu tunnel).
Early indications suggest, however, that the road is popular. According to government figures, traffic volume on three sections of the first project rose at an average annual rate of 8.5% between 1995 and 2001.
Meanwhile, the Government agreed to specific financing levels for road maintenance as part of the covenants for the third project upgrading the Jalal Abad and Osh Province sections.
The road will lower transport costs and give the poor better access to markets, jobs, and health and education services
That phase has also upgraded roads servicing the main route in an effort to boost the economic potential of nearby towns and villages. Technical assistance grants were attached to the three project loans to foster market-oriented policy reforms within the Kyrgyz transport sector, improve road maintenance and safety, and strengthen road sector institutions.
Project officers say the road will lower transport costs and give the poor better access to markets, jobs, and health and education services.
YOUNG HOPES A brighter future
Among other plans for the Kyrgyz transport sector, the next loan (proposed for 2004 approval) will rehabilitate part of the road running from the Osh region, south through Sary-Tash and onward to Irkeshtam at the Kyrgyz-PRC border. It would link the region to the market city of Kashgar in Xinjiang Province, and further boost the economic potential of the region.
Aside from agriculture, the Kyrgyz economy features hydroelectric projects along the Naryn River in the Ferghana Valley, and also mining and other industries. Better transport links to the PRC and the rest of central Asia promise direct and indirect benefits for many.
Indeed, rebuilding the Kyrgyz road network is just part of a regional plan for reviving the landlocked, former Soviet republics, reorienting them toward a booming people’s republic to the east.
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