Flagship Project Going Slowly in Turkmenistan
Flagship Project Going Slowly in Turkmenistan
While the Turkmen authorities say a massive luxury resort on the Caspian Sea coast is well on the way to completion, local observers say construction is more or less at a standstill.
The Avaza tourist zone, located in the port city of Turkmenbashi, is intended to be a 16 kilometre-long resort complex with some 60 hotels, health and leisure facilities, plush apartment blocks, and its own international airport. The government has invested a billion dollars of its own money add offered tax breaks and other incentives in a bid to attract foreign investors, the idea being that the project will create 150,000 jobs locally and boost economic activity nationwide.
On January 20, the state run TDH news agency reported that the resort was preparing for its first visitors and six luxury hotels would open this year.
On the ground, however, observers note a singular lack of activity on the plots of land laid out for the resort. One spoke of “complete silence” on the building sites. The Russian, French and Turkish firms which have previously carried out other major construction projects in Turkmenistan have merely fenced off their land here.
“Not one building funded by foreign investment is currently going up,” he said.
There are two 12-storey blocks, intended as sanatorium-type rest homes, which are supposed to be ready as soon as May, but construction has been painfully slow over the last two years due to a shortage of materials.
“Problems with the cement supply mean construction deadlines are unlikely to be met,” said a local foreman.
Some of the cement needed for the Avaza resort comes from the Turkish town of Trabzon, and is shipped across the Caspian, while the rest comes by rail from Uzbekistan. But sometimes shipments are diverted to other projects.
“The bulk of the Uzbek cement goes to other construction projects, for example for luxury buildings in the capital [Ashgabat] and never reaches Avaza,” said a construction worker.
Similar problems dog another project at the resort – a seven-kilometre man-made navigable waterway, intended to be the resort’s signature feature. The canal’s water flow is to be regulated by sluicegates but work on these is slow, again because materials are in short supply.
“I fear that chronic funding shortfalls and lack of materials is going to turn this resort into a very long project,” said a journalist from the area.
(NBCentralAsia is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service has resumed, covering Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.)
The Avaza tourist zone, located in the port city of Turkmenbashi, is intended to be a 16 kilometre-long resort complex with some 60 hotels, health and leisure facilities, plush apartment blocks, and its own international airport. The government has invested a billion dollars of its own money add offered tax breaks and other incentives in a bid to attract foreign investors, the idea being that the project will create 150,000 jobs locally and boost economic activity nationwide.
On January 20, the state run TDH news agency reported that the resort was preparing for its first visitors and six luxury hotels would open this year.
On the ground, however, observers note a singular lack of activity on the plots of land laid out for the resort. One spoke of “complete silence” on the building sites. The Russian, French and Turkish firms which have previously carried out other major construction projects in Turkmenistan have merely fenced off their land here.
“Not one building funded by foreign investment is currently going up,” he said.
There are two 12-storey blocks, intended as sanatorium-type rest homes, which are supposed to be ready as soon as May, but construction has been painfully slow over the last two years due to a shortage of materials.
“Problems with the cement supply mean construction deadlines are unlikely to be met,” said a local foreman.
Some of the cement needed for the Avaza resort comes from the Turkish town of Trabzon, and is shipped across the Caspian, while the rest comes by rail from Uzbekistan. But sometimes shipments are diverted to other projects.
“The bulk of the Uzbek cement goes to other construction projects, for example for luxury buildings in the capital [Ashgabat] and never reaches Avaza,” said a construction worker.
Similar problems dog another project at the resort – a seven-kilometre man-made navigable waterway, intended to be the resort’s signature feature. The canal’s water flow is to be regulated by sluicegates but work on these is slow, again because materials are in short supply.
“I fear that chronic funding shortfalls and lack of materials is going to turn this resort into a very long project,” said a journalist from the area.
(NBCentralAsia is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service has resumed, covering Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.)
