Naibabad

Photos from the Northern Afghanistan Railway Study

Posted on by Andrew Grantham

Key leader engagement with Afghan Rail Authority

Posted on by Andrew Grantham

News from the Naibabad freight terminal, with some photos of goods being unloaded from trains.

Unloading railway wagon at Naibabad, Afghanistan (Photo: Sgt 1st Class Timothy Lawn, 1st Theater Sustainment Command Public Affairs, US Army/DVIDS)
Rail Port 4, Niababad, a crane lifts steel rebar rods out of a railroad gondola car, the steel rebar is then manhandled and lifted onto trucks for transportation to construction sites around Afghanistan. The steel rebar was imported through Uzbekistan. (U.S. Army photos by Sgt. 1st Class Timothy Lawn, 1st Theater Sustainment Command Public Affairs/Released)

Unloading railway wagon at Naibabad, Afghanistan (Photo: Sgt 1st Class Timothy Lawn, 1st Theater Sustainment Command Public Affairs, US Army/DVIDS)
Rail Port 4, Niababad, Afghan laborers begin the manually intensive process of offloading 100 pound plus bags of baking flour from a boxcar onto waiting semi trucks for shipment to Afghan markets. The flour was imported through Uzbekistan. (U.S. Army photos by Sgt. 1st Class Timothy Lawn, 1st Theater Sustainment Command Public Affairs/Released)

1st TSC Rail Advisory Team hosts key leader engagement with Afghan Rail Authority

1st Sustainment Command (Theater) Public Affairs
Sgt. 1st Class Timothy Lawn

NIABABAD, Afghanistan – 1st Theater Sustainment Command, Afghan Rail Advisory Team, host a Key Leader Engagement with members of the Afghanistan Ministry of Customs and Industry at rail Port 4, Niababad, Afghanistan, Oct 13.

The ARAT team is comprised of civilian and military railroad operational and business experts who are working with the Afghanistan Railway Authority on a train, advise and assist mission. They also provide the ARA with railroad advice, and options on improving rail operations, safety, law enforcement and railway industry development.

Maj. Timothy Christensen leads the ARAT, hosted by the Afghan MOCI delegation at rail Port 4. The rail hub crosses the famed Friendship Bridge and links Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan in the north. They presented the Afghan delegation with a map of the existing rail infrastructure at the port. The map was created by the Transportation Engineering Agency, which is part of Surface Deployment Distribution Command. Additionally, the team’s mission was to address the Afghan’s railroad business concerns.

After the meeting the ARAT team and Afghan delegation toured the rail facility.

Source: DVIDS, 21 October 2013

Photos of the first commercial train on the Mazar-i-Sharif line

Posted on by Andrew Grantham

Photographs of the first commercial train to Naibabad (terminus of the new railway from Hairatan to Mazar-i-Sharif), on 3 February 2012.

All photos by David Brice.

The train was hauled by locomotive 2ТЭ10М-2337.

The train comprised nine wagons carrying flour from Kazakhstan and three wagons of Siberian timber.

There is another photo on a 7 February 2012 story from Ariana News For the first time transport of goods by rail commenced in Afghanistan: “The Naibabad port has the capacity of loading and unloading 34 trucks at a time while the local officials are looking to upgrade the capacity of that port.”

The CAREC article Hairatan-Mazar-e-Sharif railway opens, highlights country-to-country cooperation has a photo of an inaugural train arriving at the “newly built Naibabad Station in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif” on 21 December 2011. “Although the seven-carriage train carried no cargo, it brought great opportunity for increased trade and cooperation between Afghanistan and its neighbors in Central Asia”.