Choir – Sainshand Road to be Operational by 2013

The construction of the 176.4 kilometre-long road from Choir to Sainshand started in February of 2011. The road will link Dornogobi, Gombosumber aimags and several soms and is built with CTV cement (over 20cm thick). The new material has been deemed suitable for Mongolia’s extreme climate due to its firm and durable quality.

Four years ago, Mongolia signed the Millennium Challenge Corporation contract issued from the U.S. Government, making Mongolia eligible for a 285 million USD funding. An additional road construction project decree was added to the contract in February 2010. Under this project, the South Korean Halla Engineering & Construction Corporation is executing the first 90 kilometres of construction.

The Halla Engineering & Construction Corporation is hoping to make the list of the top ten South Korean construction companies. This company has undertaken many large-scale construction projects for hotels, apartments, railroads, highways and bridges. The manager of the project, Ju Ig Hyon stated, “The track-laying began on March 1st. We give it a guarantee of 365 days. The width of the road is ten meters. The cost of the project is 33.8 million USD. The project completion is at 23 percent at the moment.”

All of the building materials that the company uses pass under laboratory examinations. Halla Engineering & Construction Corporation has already set up the CTV cement facility and other factories.

The second section of the road construction project, which is an 86 kilometre road, will be build by Chinese Jianshi County’s company with more than 60 years of experience. They will import the required material and equipment from China. They will also do restoration work, after small mining projects. The financing for this has been taken into consideration with the pre-feasibility study.

The supervisor of the company in charge of bridge construction stated, “The job will be done under a Chinese engineer using high quality and standards. The load capacity of the bridge will be 65 tons. At the moment, 50 percent of the land preparation is complete. We plan to finish all dam and pipe projects within this year.”

In the second section of the project, there are a total of 369 employees, 235 of which are Chinese while 134 employees are from Airag som and residents of Sainshand. About 75 percent of the Mongolian workers are drivers, while the rest work with the rocks and soil. Women employed work mostly in the kitchens. The monthly salaries of the Mongolian drivers are one million MNT and the assistant workers’ wage is around 500 to 600 thousand MNT. The Chinese company purchases most of the food material as well as some of the construction material from the provinces, which boosts the provincial market to about 30 million MNT, monthly.

The Environmental Manager of the company, D.Ganbold, proudly announced that the company is paying extra attention to the environment, which he feels sets them apart from other construction companies.

According to P.Batsaikhan, the Director of the Road Construction Project of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), the funding from the U.S. was provided with the purpose of reducing poverty during economic growth. Mongolia imports most of its goods from China. When importers transport their goods by railroad, sometimes their imports are held at the border for days, weeks and sometimes even months, which causes the rise of prices of imported goods. The Choir to Sainshand road is intended to provide an alternative path for importers to transport their goods. The breakdown of cars, caused by travelling unsafe dirt roads is also a common problem. The construction of the new road will help reduce this problem. The new road will provide opportunities for transit and serve an important role in the further development of the economy. This also has an important role in the provinces as the Choir-Sainshand road will connect to 4th Asian highway network.

P.Batsaikhan also stated, “The operations of executing companies are always checked by our engineers and by a company from Denmark. Independent engineers representing the Millennium Challenge Account conduct a monthly examination of the bridges, roads and pipe-lines just to double check things.”

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