The quality and availability of district heating services in Uzbekistan have been on a steady decline since most of the district heating assets were put in operation in the 1950s-1970s. Because of the expected growth in heat demand and industry practice at that time, they were often oversized and still remain so. Also, the district heating systems were predominantly designed as open systems for sanitary hot water supply, which caused accelerated wear and tear of heat transportation and distribution networks and inefficient use of energy.

In this context, the Uzbekistan State Committee for Investment (replaced since by the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade) signed a memorandum of cooperation with Veolia (Private Initiator or Private Partner) on 9 October 2018 for the long-term operation and maintenance of Tashkent City district heating network for a proposed period of 30 years (the Project). The objective of the memorandum of cooperation was for the Private Initiator to submit an unsolicited proposal to Tashkent City Municipality (TCM or Public Partner) for district heating services in Tashkent.

Subsequently, ADB’s Office of Public-Private Partnership was mandated as the transaction advisor for the Project by TCM on 29 July 2019 and ADB extended technical assistance for project preparation and tender support funded by the Asia Pacific Project Preparation Facility on 13 August 2019.

The project reached commercial close on 29 September 2021.

The proposed TA will provide critical technical, commercial, and financial capacity to TCM and other stakeholders in the management of a complex long-term contract.