Mongolia's new connections

RSSPlans are in hand in Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar for a series of road and bridge projects that will improve the city’s connectivity with the rest of the country. Included in the planned works are works to build five new bridges, 139km of roads and widen 150km of roads. The transport plan will run until the end of 2013. Ulaanbaatar will develop a further two bridges, rebuild 200km of roads and run 73km of roads in the period from 2013-2016. At present, there are 64 bridges and 450km of paved roads in Ulaanbaatar. It is not clear when the tender processes will be commenced for the various projects. Nor is it clear at this stage how the projects will be financed, through state investments, PPPs or international input. With Mongolia's extraction industries providing strong revenues at present though, it seems likely the country's government will be able to fund the works at least in part. International interest is likely to be strong, with Chinese contractors expected to be tendering competitively for the work.