Regional Summit Meeting of Afghanistan and Neighbors
The Secretary General’s statement
(Istanbul, 26th January, 2010)
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In the field of transport and communication, the Secretariat is currently working on the launch of the ECO truck caravan to run from Turkey through Iran and Afghanistan to Central Asia. A wing of this truck caravan will run from Pakistan to Central Asia through Afghanistan. Such effort, if successful, will add value to Afghanistan’s competitiveness as a regional transit country with the estimated potential of 20 to 30 million tons of annual transit throughput to Central Asia, South Asia, Middle East and Europe. Similarly, in the field of railways, to enable Afghanistan’s effective exchange of goods and commodities with neighboring economies, the ECO is helping the country in connecting it to regional rail road system. Afghanistan’s railway lines are projected to run along the main regional transit routes stretching through Iran, Pakistan and Central Asia. Specifically, the rail segment en route Shirkhan-Bandar-Kondoz-Mezare Sharif-Herat is being considered for construction. It will connect Afghanistan’s rail system through that of Tajikistan with China’s railway network. A number of other projects/activities are also being worked out/planned for Afghanistan in the area of transport.
Source: Economic Cooperation Organization 2010-01-26
Posts Tagged ‘Tajikistan’
ECO on rail corridors
Sunday, May 16th, 2010Bloomberg on Afghan railway projects
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010Afghan Railway to Draw Taliban Fire as It Boosts Economy, NATO
By Eltaf Najafizada and James Rupert
May 5 (Bloomberg) — Workers are laying track across north Afghanistan’s rolling grassland for the country’s first rail line, a project that will boost the economy, supply NATO troops and become a target for Taliban bombs.
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“Railroads can reduce our isolation,” said Hamidullah Farooqi, a Kabul University economics professor and former transport minister, in a phone interview. “This is just the first line for a network that we hope can turn our country into a new trade route. That is what we need to create stability.”
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Tajik rail link feasibility study
Friday, April 9th, 2010Tajik leader, Asian bank official discuss energy projects, Afghanistan
[Director-General of Asian Develop Bank's Central & West Asia Department] Juan Miranda said the ADB had been very successful in drawing up a feasibility study of a project to build several other power plants in Tajikistan, power transmission lines from Tajikistan to Afghanistan and a railway line between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, which will link with railways in Turkmenistan and Iran. [...] It was also said that the construction of a regional railway had started in the part of Hayratan-Mazar-e Sharif and a feasibility study of the Tajikistan-Herat railway will be ready by this summer. …
Source: Excerpt from report by state-owned Tajik Television First Channel on 2010-03-15, quoted at PennEnergy
Tajik leader, Afghan minister mull electricity exports
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and Afghan Minister of Economy Abdol Hadi Arghandiwal discussed trade and economic cooperation between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, in Dushanbe today.
At a meeting with journalists following the talks with the Tajik president, the Afghan minister of economy said that “during the conversation with the president, export of Tajik electricity to Afghanistan, the construction of a railway and the construction of a hydroelectric power station on the River Panj were discussed”.
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According to him, at present a railway line from Iran is being constructed in Afghanistan, and it will stretch up to the Tajik Panj, where it will connect with a railway branch of Tajikistan.Source: Avesta website, Dushanbe, in Russian 2010-03-17, quoted at Hydroworld
Wagons delayed in Uzbekistan
Thursday, March 25th, 2010“according to the note, about 1000 units of railway cargo intended for Tajikistan and Afghanistan have been detained in the territory of Uzbekistan within two months.”
“S. Shoislamov explained that the delay of cargoes is connected with busy cargo transportation traffic to Afghanistan.
Source: gazeta.kz, 2010-03-25
Tajik rail link offered
Monday, February 8th, 2010Islamabad-Dushanbe flights will start by March: Tajik envoy
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The ambassador [of Tajikistan to Pakistan, Zubaydullo N Zubaydov] said that he would like to acknowledge that at the London Conference held on January 28, 2010 on providing stability and security in Afghanistan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan announced that Tajik side has offered construction of railway and gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, as well as building of power transmission lines from Turkmenistan to North Afghanistan and Tajikistan, building Dashti Joom Hydropower Dam at the Tajik-Afghan border. “It will help the normalisation of the situation and restoration of the economic life in Afghanistan”, he added.
Source: Business Recorder, 2010-02-05
Hayratan to Mazar-i-Sharif project details
Sunday, September 27th, 2009Asian Development Bank has details of the Hairatan to Mazar-e-Sharif Railway Project. “Interesting to see it all in one place” says Michael G Erickson who spotted it.
The Hairatan to Mazar-e-Sharif railway link is part of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program. It fits with Transport Corridors 3 and 6, which connect Central Asia to South Asia and the region to the Caucasus and the Middle East. Although the road between Hairatan and Mazar-e-Sharif has been improved, it cannot meet national and regional traffic needs. A railway from Hairatan to Mazar-e-Sharif will (i) improve links between Afghanistan and neighboring countries, as well as nearby seaports; and (ii) develop an integrated transport network that caters for different cargo.
The existing Uzbek railway network stops at the border town of Hairatan. This is a gateway to Afghanistan, but it has reached its full capacity (4,000 tons of cargo per month). The flow of goods from Central Asia to Afghanistan will increase from 25,000 tons to 40,000 tons per month over the next few years. To prevent bottlenecks at the border, the existing Uzbek railway at Hairatan needs to be extended into Afghanistan, in a first intervention, to Mazar-e-Sharif. At a later stage, the railway network will be extended to Herat in the west and Tajikistan in the east. The railway will service commercial and non-military cargo.
The project is a priority one for Afghanistan. It fits with its Railway Development Plan. It is closely linked to ADB’s Country Partnership Strategy for 2009-2013, which identifies the construction and rehabilitation of national roads and railways as a priority. It is also consistent with the CAREC Transport and Trade Facilitation Strategy.
The infrastructure:
The Project outputs will be (i) around 80kms railway line from Hairatan to Mazar-e-Sharif with support facilities including rail/road connections and terminals constructed; (ii) established signaling and management information system; (iii) productive use of available land and social safeguarded; (iv) safeguarded and protected environment along railway corridor; (vi) strengthened institutions and management capacity.
Source: Asian Development Bank
Meanwhile, New rail line between Uzbekistan, Afghanistan to serve strategic purpose, reports Central Asia Online:
The construction of the 67km-long line is included in a memorandum of understanding to expand trade and economic opportunities that was recently signed by Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and the Asian Development Bank.
A technical team from Uzbek Railway is scheduled to arrive in Afghanistan shortly to prepare for construction. The cost of the project is estimated to be US$120 million, an amount that will provided by the Asian Development Bank. Construction is tentatively slated to begin in December.
Source: Central Asia Online, 2009-08-29
Medvedev backs rail projects
Monday, August 17th, 2009A Reuters report saying Russia’s President Medvedev backs Afghan railway projects.
Russia aims to spur Afghan region economy, win aid
By Roman Kozhevnikov and Anastasia Onegina
DUSHANBE, July 30 (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday brought together the leaders of Afghanistan, Pakistan and their neighbour Tajikistan to try and spur regional economic recovery and attract huge aid flows.
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“We have a common space, which should be filled with all sorts of projects,” Medvedev said in the Tajik capital after meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.“We were talking about energy projects, railway projects,” he told a news conference after talks also attended by Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon.
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Source: Reuters 2009-07-30
ADB supports railway study
Saturday, May 9th, 2009A news release from the Asian Development Bank, dated 28 April 2009. ADB has also published Islamic Republic of Afghanistan: Railway Development Study (PDF), with some background and a handy map.
Boost for Afghan Plan to Develop Railway System
MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Afghanistan’s push to develop a railway system that will spur economic growth and make the country a key transit and trade route within Asia is to receive support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
ADB has approved a technical assistance grant of US$1.2 million to fund a feasibility study for two key railway routes in the north of the country. The focus will be on railway lines linking northern Afghanistan with neighboring Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
Land-locked Afghanistan has seen major improvements in its road network in recent years, with support from ADB. However, only half the roads that connect 24 provinces in the country are serviceable throughout the year and the system remains inadequate, inefficient and, in some places, unsafe. Rail provides a more reliable and cost-effective option for moving people and goods, and can help Afghanistan unlock its significant mineral, industrial and agricultural wealth.
An expanded rail system will also help Afghanistan realize its strategic potential as a gateway linking Central, South Asia and the Middle East, and supports the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) group of countries’ transport corridors program.
“The technical assistance support for an expanded rail system will help boost sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction in the country, as well as fostering regional cooperation by boosting intra and interregional trade along the CAREC transport corridors,” says Manzoor Rehman, Senior Transport Specialist in ADB’s Central and West Asia Department. “It will enhance Afghanistan’s economic competitiveness and provide all-year accessibility to its neighbors.”
Feasibility studies will be carried out on two proposed railway lines linking Hairatan, on the border with Uzbekistan, to Herat, in west Afghanistan, and another starting at Shirkhan Bendar, on the border with Tajikistan, and traveling via Kunduz and Mazar-e-Sharif to Herat. ADB will assess long-term traffic demand, and the rail sector’s potential capacity, before making recommendations to the Government on the two routes.
The total project cost is estimated at $1.26 million with the government making an in-kind contribution equivalent to $60,000. The Ministry of Public Works will be the Executing Agency.
Since 2002, ADB has approved financial support of over $600 million for Afghanistan’s transport and communications sector, mostly for roads. This is over 40% of ADB’s overall assistance to the country and around 25% of all donor financing for Afghanistan’s roads. The new technical assistance grant is included in the ADB’s 2009 pipeline for nonlending products and services for Afghanistan, as set out in the ADB’s Country Partnership Strategy: Afghanistan, 2009-2013.
Source: Asian Development Bank 2009-04-28
Tajikistan building railway to Afghanistan
Sunday, April 5th, 2009A 20 March 2009 article from the Open Society Institute’s EurasiaNet website.
Tajikistan: rail link to Afghanistan under construction
Tajikistan has begun construction on a railway line to connect the capital Dushanbe with the southern city of Khorgan-Tepe near the Afghan border. Once completed, the link could be used by US and NATO forces transporting goods to Afghanistan through the newly opened Northern Distribution Network.
President Imomali Rahmon officially launched the Vakhdat-Yavan section of the line, the Interfax news agency reported March 20. Construction on the $130 million project is drawing on funds from the Tajik state rail company, but the government hopes to attract foreign investors, the report added.
In January Tajikistan received $14.79 million grant to complete a highway running from Khorgan-Teppe to Nizhny Pyanzh at the Afghan border. The nearly 24-kilometer stretch of road will link into a $37-million, US-funded bridge across the Pyanzh River to Shir Khan Bandar in Afghanistan. The bridge was completed in 2007. In August 2008, a border post at Nizhny Pyanzh, built at a cost of $6.5-million by the US Army Corps of Engineers, was given to the Tajik Customs Service.
Source: Copyright 2009 Open Society Institute. Reprinted with the permission of the Open Society Institute, 400 West 59th Street, New York, NY 10019 USA, www.EurasiaNet.org
Iran to Afghanistan railway completed ‘in the next 5 years’
Sunday, February 8th, 2009Afghan website Quqnoos reports on the Iran — Herat railway construction project. There is a photograph of some railway track, but it could be a stock picture rather than evidence of the work being underway.
Plans to extend the line from Herat to serve the existing railheads are mentioned.
Afghanistan’s railway project which will connect Shirkhan harbor with the western province of Herat will cost $2 billion.
The project which is planned to be completed in the next five years will connect Central Asia with Iran via Afghanistan.
Construction work on the project, from Herat to Iran, has already started. The design of the rest of the railway network from Herat to the Shirkhan commercial transit way is also in late planning stage.
The railway network which will be about 1200 km long will connect Afghanistan’s Shirkhan, Hairatan, Aqina and Torghondi commercial highways with the commercial harbors in the central Asian countries.
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Meanwhile the media in Tajikistan have reported that work has begun on a railway network which will link Klokhabad with Panjpayan, on the border with Afghanistan.
Source: Quqnoos.com 2009-01-19
