The technical studies of Kandahar-Quetta and Jalalabad-Peshawar railway, which will be completed in four months, are handed over to the Hampton and Branchville Railroad Company.
Source: Quqnoos.com, 2010-07-08
The H&BR appears to be a 40 mile shortline in South Carolina with eight locos and 14 staff… on the face of it, not the most obvious firm to carry out feasibility studies in Afghanistan?
Has anyone got a copy of the text of the joint communique?
Pakistan, Afghanistan agree to establish rail links
By Sajid Chaudhry
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for establishing the Torkham-Jalalabad and Chaman-Spinboldak-Kandhar rail links.
The MoU, covering feasibility studies for both the projects, was signed by Federal Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour and Afghan Finance Minister Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal on Wednesday.
However, both countries failed to break the deadlock over the transit facility for Indian goods that would be sent to Afghanistan via Pakistan under the proposed Afghan -Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA).
[More...]
Source: Daily Times, 2010-07-08
The Jalalabad plan presumably means rehabilitating the Khyber Pass line and then extending it over the border into Afghanistan for the first time.
In an article at Asia Times Online, Syed Fazl-e-Haider writes about co-operation between China and Pakistan, including plans to extend the Khyber Pass line and build the Spin Boldak line. There is also discussion of a direct China - Pakistan railway.
Chinese shun Pakistan exodus
…
China has also shown interest in early laying a track between the Pakistan border town of Torkham and Jalalabad in Afghanistan, as the Chinese want to use the Pakistan Railways network to transport their goods and equipment for the development of copper mines and various other projects in Afghanistan. Separately, Pakistan Railways has completed a feasibility study for a rail section between Chaman, in Balochistan, and Kandahar in Afghanistan that is part of a proposed link across Afghanistan to Turkmenistan.
Source: Asia Times Online, 2009-09-11
Dr Jack Schroder writes to me regarding “a secret British report had a planned RR from Jalalabad going up the Kabul River to Sarobi and then north up the Panshir River before crossing it near Baghram and then back south to Kabul.”
I think there might be copy in the British Library, a document which I didn’t get round to reading. Unfotunately Dr Schroder forgot to include his e-mail address - so if he is reading, please can he get in touch again?
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