Support to the Advisory Group on Railway Sector Development (ADB-51391-002)

Countries
  • Afghanistan
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • Asian Development Bank (ADB)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Active
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
U
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Oct 26, 2018
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
Government of Afghanistan
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Technical Cooperation
  • Transport
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Advisory Services, Grant
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 0.23 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Bank Documents
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ ADB website

Updated in EWS Feb 15, 2019

Disclosed by Bank Oct 26, 2018

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to the bank website, The TA will have the following outcome: Roadmap for development of Afghanistan's railway subsector updated. The SSTA will deliver three outputs:

Output 1: Meetings of the Advisory Group completed. The TA will support the conduct of at least 2 more meetings of the Advisory Group. Such meetings will help to ensure that donor coordination is upkept and a consistent approach is maintained toward the further development of the railway subsector in Afghanistan.

Output 2: Project concepts prepared and prioritized. The TA will help the government and ARA to elaborate on project concepts which are line with principles outlined in para 6. One approach which could bring early benefits to Afghanistan, would be to construct multimodal hubs at Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif, so that transit freight could start flowing through Afghanistan via the Ring Road, financed by ADB and other donors. Transit fees from such multimodal transport operation could be collected into a dedicated fund, and proceeds used for the incremental construction of the railway line. Alternatives may include commissioning certain (shorter) parts of the MHR line such as Herat-Torghundi or Mazar-I-Sharif to Aquina in advance of other parts of the line. The TA will assist in examining these options, and prioritize them according to economic feasibility.

Output 3: Institutional transition plan completed. ARA is currently at a crossroad in terms of its institutional development. To date, it has remained mainly a regulator of small branch lines into Afghanistan from Iran, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. As it prepares for the construction and subsequent operation and maintenance of larger stretches of railways, the institutional form and mandate of ARA also needs to evolve. Work has been conducted to date under the TNDIP Tranche 4 to elaborate on several options moving forward. Based on this work, the TA will prepare an institutional transition plan for ARA, to guide its future development in line with the future form of the network.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

Responsible ADB Officer Sakamoto, Ko
Responsible ADB Department Central and West Asia Department
Responsible ADB Division Transport and Communications Division, CWRD
Executing Agencies Afghanistan Railway Authority
House #138 Street#6 Taimany Watt, Kabul, Afghanistan

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF ADB

The Accountability Mechanism is an independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an Asian Development Bank-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the Accountability Mechanism, they may investigate to assess whether the Asian Development Bank is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. You can learn more about the Accountability Mechanism and how to file a complaint at: http://www.adb.org/site/accountability-mechanism/main

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How it works