“Following Brussels conference, efforts on card to construct 1,425km in the country up to the year of 2020”, said Head of Afghanistan Railway Authority Abdul Bari Sediqi.
He said that also Afghanistan Railway Authority will complete technical and primary survey of 2,025km railway till 2020.
[more]
Source: 1,425km railway to be constructed by 2020 in Afghanistan: MoPW, Afghanistan Times, 5 December 2016.
Afghanistan Times
Uzbek Railways awarded new Afghan operations and maintenance contract
Last year the Afghanistan Railway Authority invited expressions of interest in contracts to operate and maintain the 75 km railway from Hairatan to Mazar-i-Sharif.
On 15 March 20151 Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Works awarded Uzbek national railway UTY a new contract to operate and maintain the line.2
This contract replaces the original 2011 operating contract, which was worth worth $32m/year. On 8 February 2011 UTY established its Sogdiana Trans subsidiary to undertake operations and maintenance in Afghanistan.3
The latest contract runs for three years and will see UTY paid $19m/year to manage the line. UTY will pay taxes, and is to provide training for 50 Afghans each year. Until now the railway has only been used for imports, but the new contract should see the line used to carry a total of at least four million tonnes of Afghan goods for export.
- Upkeep matters: Afghanistan, Uzbekistan renew railway project agreement, Afghanistan Times, 15 March 2015 ↩
- Uzbekistan extends contract on railway maintenance in Afghanistan, Demir Azizov, Trend, 21 March 2015 ↩
- История проекта Sogdiana Trans ↩
Turkmenistan – Afghanistan – Tajikistan line needs money and security
“Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan Railway project to be completed soon if challenges addressed“, reports the Afghanistan Times on 1 November 2014, citing the head of the Afghanistan Railway Authority speaking in an interview with Radio Azadi.
However those “challenges” are the perhaps non-trivial matters of security and funding, and two years sounds like it would be pretty good going for building 495 km of new railway.
According to the report:
- Yama Shams, General Director & CEO of the Afghanistan Railway Authority, told Radio Azadi that “Engineers and workers of the project are faced with serious problems in areas from Mazar-i-Sharif city to Andkhoy. This area is insecure. They cannot work after 4pm. Our staffers have not been attacked yet but they are under security threat.”
- Studies have been completed for the 220 km section of line from Mazar-i-Sharif to Andkhoy (where it would meet the line from Turkmenistan). Studies for the next 275 km (presumably the link to Tajikistan) would be completed in 2015.
- The project could be completed in the next two years if the workers were provided with security and financial support.
- The total project covers a 635 km route from Aqina near the border with Turkmenistan to Andkhoy, Sheberghan, Mazar-i-Sharif, Khulm, Kunduz and Shirkhan Bandar, ending at Kalkhor Abad (Kolkhozabad) in Tajikistan. This suggests that going via Shirkhan Bandar rather than a shorter route to the Tajik border is back on the agenda.
View Turkmenistan – Andkhoy railway plan in a larger map
Railway to change fate of Afghanistan
Railway to change fate of Afghanistan, by Farhad Naibkhel in the Afghanistan Times. With a photo of locomotive TEM2 6561 and a passenger coach.