In 2007 equipment for the German military at Mazar-e-Sharif was sent by rail from Berlin to Hayratan, taking 28 to 32 days to cover around 6000 km via Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
STUTE unterstützt Bundeswehr mit kompetenter Transportlogistik (PDF) is a German-language article about it published by STUTE.
There is a a letter in the August 2008 issue of Railway Gazette International from railway consultant David Brice, who has worked in Afghanistan providing advice on transport.
He considers the options for the railway planned to run from the Aynak copper mine to China via Dushanbe and Kashgar, concluding that standard gauge would be the best choice, and “the opportunity to avoid tedious gauge changes must not be passed up.”
Simon Darvill has undertaken extensive research into industrial locomotives in south Asia, and the results have been compiled into a new website, www.ilsa.org.in which is now live.
There are detailed records of industrial locos which have been used in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Burma and Bhutan (yes, really!) since the early 1850s.
Included in the section on railways used for military purposes in India up to 1947 are details of railways used for British overseas campaigns up until the end of World War I. This includes the campaign in Mespotamia (now Iraq.)
Simon has supplied this site with details of locomotives in Afghanistan; his site also has an Afghan section.
In ‘Just World News’, journalist Helena Cobban writes about China’s role in the Aynak copper mine project. The plans include a rail link to China.
China buys in to Iraqi, Afghan end-games
Posted by Helena Cobban at August 30, 2008 01:35 PM
…If the Chinese really are also going to build a rail line that comes from western China, through Tajikstan, down through Afghanistan (including Aynak,) and through Pakistan to Karachi, then that is extremely significant.
I think the China-Tajikstan connector is already underway…
But the whole project, when completed, will have huge benefits:
- for China, in its continuing drive to bring economic development to its far-west regions,
- for Tajikstan and the other landlocked former-Soviet Stans, who have pretty good Soviet-era railway systems– but so far, most of them connect to the outside world only through Russia. This new connector would give them new outlets, to both China and the Arabian Sea.
- for Pakistan, which gets access to a whole new hinterland and trading bloc there in Stanistan, and finally–
- for Afghanistan, which gets its first ever long distance rail line– and one that connects, moreover, to such a lot of other interesting and potentially lucrative places. It also thereby gets a way to start exporting not just the massive amounts of copper said to exist in Aynak but all the rest of its currently barely scratched-at wealth of mineral resources.
Win-win-win all round, I’d say. And not just because I’m a committed ferrophile.
Read the full article at ‘Just World News’
According to Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an agreement is finalised this year for the construction of rail link from Tajikistan to Iran through Afghanistan, presumably using the Herat - Iran railway on which work is now underway.
Minister Spantas press conference in Kabul
30/08/2008 Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in a press conference here in Kabul [...] talked about the recent trip of a high level Afghan delegation under the chairmanship of president Karzai to Tajikistan to take part in the summit of the shanghai cooperation group there.
[...]
In the sidelines of this summit the heads of states of Afghanistan, Iran and Tajikistan met to discus in details the issues of transit, and trade between the their countries.In this meeting its was decided that till the end of the current year the text of the agreement in the bases of which the transfer of water and energy to Iran via Afghanistan, and also construction of a railway track from Tajikistan via Afghanistan to Iran that will link Tajikistan and Afghanistan to the Persian gulf will be completed, also the work between the experts of the these countries will soon start to establish a TV station, also honoring the birth anniversary of the famous Dari poet Abu Abdullah Rodake in Herat, and also celebrating the Nawroz festival in Mazar-i-sharif in the month of Hamal were discussed.
In a respond to a question that how Afghanistan can benefit from its transit role in this region? Dr. Spanta said, Afghanistan is a landlocked country we must search proper ways to find a solution for our problems and based on the principles of our government we don’t want to be limited in our ties in the region.
A report from the Gulf Times of 31 August 2008.
German army proposes new Afghan rail link
The German military is considering building a railway line in northern Afghanistan to ease transport of Nato supplies to the country and boost economic activity in the area, a German news magazine reported yesterday.
Apart from a short stretch from Uzbekistan, Afghanistan has almost no functioning railways, with less than 25km of track in the entire country. A number of railways leading towards Afghanistan stop short of the border.
[This wording is similar to my history, which is now out of date because of the Towraghondi line]
The proposed 67km stretch would link the northern city of Mazar-I-Sharif with the Uzbek town of Termez, where the German air force has a base, Der Spiegel magazine reported.
Germany currently has an agreement with Moscow permitting it to transport supplies via rail through Russia to Afghanistan. The new link would greatly ease supplies to Germany’s biggest Afghan base at Mazar-i-Sharif.
The cost of the proposed railway has not been calculated but the military is hoping for financial contributions from Germany’s development agency and from international organisations, stressing the economic benefits, Spiegel said.
The line would connect with an existing Soviet-built rail and road bridge crossing the Amu Darya River which separates the Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. The bridge, built in 1982, was closed by the Taliban in 1997
after they took control of the area and was reopened in late 2001.
I’ll see if I can find the Spiegel article. Germany and Uzbekistan signed a transit agreement on 4 March 2008.
Update: Here is the original article in Der Spiegel: Bundeswehr plant den Bau einer Bahnlinie in Afghanistan (German army plans to build a railway line in Afghanistan), dated August 30.
Uzbek news agency УзА (UZA) has a report about a recent official visit which discussed Afghan railway projects. Google’s automatic translation and a bit of tidying up gives something like this, although I don’t speak Russian so it might not be quite right!
Visiting Afghan delegation
On 27 August a delegation from Afghanistan headed by Ali Safari Sohrobom, Minister of Public Works, met Akbar Shukurovym, Deputy Chairman of state railway company Uzbekiston Temir Yullari.
During the meeting they stressed the importance of the promotion of mutual cooperation in such spheres as trade, the economy, energy, transport and communications, the legal basis for which agreements [were, will be?] reached during meetings of the heads of state of Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.
Links between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan in the field of transport and communications are important. During the meeting the sides exchanged views on expanding co-operation between the two countries in the field of railway transport.
No more details are given, unfortunately.
House of Commons, Written Answers 21 November 2007
International Development
Afghanistan: RailwaysMr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what railway construction projects are (a) planned and (b) under way in Afghanistan.
Mr. Malik: Many bulk commodities are brought by rail to Afghanistan’s borders and then transported by truck around the country. In early 2006 Afghanistan began work on a railway project connecting Hirat [Herat] city to the Iranian border at Sangan. 60 per cent. of the project is funded by the Iranian Government. Discussion is under way on constructing lengthier railways in Afghanistan. However, there needs to be a very careful economic cost-benefit analysis of any major railway investments to ascertain whether this is the best use of investment resources as compared with other priority investments.
The Government of Afghanistan plan to focus on improving roads and airports as priority areas of transport over the next five to 10 years, as outlined in the draft Afghanistan National Development Strategy (AMDS) transport sector plan. Railhead transfer stations at the borders are likely to be improved so that the cost of changing freight from trains to trucks is lowered, thus lowering the cost of Afghanistan’s international trade.
Sangan in Iran’s Khorasan province is the terminus of a 148 km branch from Torbate-Heydariyeh.
News dated August 6 2008 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan, regarding the 15th ministerial conference of non-aligned countries.
Minister Spantas Press conference in Kabul
In the sidelines of this conference the Foreign Ministers of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan had a bilateral meeting they talked about the cementing of the bilateral ties between the countries, construction of a railway track from the border areas of Turkmenistan to Afghanistan and various issues of interests came under discussion.
Speaking to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation’s Heads of State Summit in Colombo last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said
As part of the contract with a Chinese consortium for the exploration of the Aynak copper deposit, a railway line will be constructed which will connect Central Asia to South Asia, thereby expediting the transport of people and goods within the region and beyond.
The suggestions of passenger transport, and a through north-south link, are interesting.
The project was announced last November. A consortim of China Metallurgical Group Corporation and Jiangxi Copper Co would build a railway line from the town of Hairatan on the Amu Darya bordering Uzbekistan, through Logar and to Torkham on the Pakistan border to export the minerals
.
News from Railway Gazette International