Equipment for the new control tower at the Dushanbe airport will be supplied by French Company Thales, a source in the Tajik government told Asia-Plus today morning.

According to him, this issue has been discussed here at a meeting of Tajik Deputy Prime Minister, Azim Ibrohim, with Mr. Oliver Auchan (phonetically spelled), Vice-President of Thales.

The equipment is expected to be supplied to Tajikistan in the first half of 2019, the source added.  

Recall, a cornerstone laying ceremony for a new control tower took place at Dushanbe International Airport (DIA) on March 14, 2018.  

The Governent of France is sponsoring the construction of this significant strategic facility and French company Enterprise Marc Meunier will build the control tower at the Dushanbe airport.  The project is reportedly expected to be completed in 2021. 

A government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and France on construction of the control tower at the Dushanbe airport was signed in Dushanbe on July 13, 2015.

The document was inked by the then Minister of Transport of Tajikistan Sherali Ganjalzoda and the then Ambassador of France to Tajikistan Didier Leroy. 

An agreement on construction of a 41-meter control tower at the Dushanbe airport was reportedly reached in Dushanbe in February 2013.

Thales Group is a French multinational company that designs and builds electrical systems and provides services for the aerospace, defense, transportation and security markets.  Its headquarters are in La Défense (the business district of Paris), and its stock is listed on the Euronext Paris.

The company changed its name to Thales from Thomson-CSF in December 2000 shortly after the £1.3 billion acquisition of Racal Electronics plc, a UK defense electronics group.  It is partially state-owned by the French government, and has operations in more than 56 countries.  It reportedly has 64,000 employees and generated €14.9 billion in revenues in 2016.  It is also the 10th largest defense contractor in the world and 55% of its total sales are military sales.