India to Give Humanitarian Aid to Tajikistan

Excerpt from report by privately-owned Tajik news agency Asia- Plus

Dushanbe, 4 March: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has announced a two-million aid package for meeting the urgent humanitarian needs of Tajik people. The Indian embassy in Tajikistan has told Asia-Plus that one million of this sum will be given in money, and the rest of the aid given to Tajikistan will be medications, blankets, warm clothes, generators and other essential equipment necessary for the country that has suffered from unprecedented frosts and an energy crisis this winter.

[Passage omitted: the Indian prime minister's message is quoted as saying that India is happy to help Tajikistan]

The source also said that work would start this year on two main projects financed by the Indian government’s grants: the modernization of the Varzob – 1 hydroelectric power station and setting up a modern technical laboratory at the Tajik Technical University.

“The Indian government will fully finance these two projects, which are expected to cost over 15m dollars,” the embassy noted.

Originally published by Asia-Plus news agency, Dushanbe, in Russian 0939 4 Mar 08.

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