Posts Tagged ‘Tajikistan’

Herat line 60% complete, more railways planned

Monday, October 20th, 2008

Quqnoos reports on the construction of the line from Iran to Herat.

Railway to Iran nears end of the tracks

Written by Zabiullah Jhanmal
Sunday, 19 October 2008 10:32

Ministry hopes to have the railway finished by the end of the year

A new railway linking Iran with the western Afghan city of Herat is 60% complete, the Ministry of Public Affairs said.

The Khawaf-Herat railway, built by the government of Iran, is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

The ministry said it planned to build more railway lines to meet the demand for transportation links between Afghanistan and its neighbours, who use Afghanistan as a transit route for goods travelling to other parts of the region.

The ministry says rail transport is five times cheaper than transporting goods by road.

But one kilometer of railway built in Afghanistan costs about $2 million, the ministry said, and a planned railway between Herat and Tajikistan will cost about $4 billion.

Deputy minister for public affaris, Ahmad Wali Rasooli, said: “After the completion of road constructions throughout the country, and with the increase of transported goods, we are now turning our attention to railroads.

“Now there is a real need for the construction of rail-roads in the country. We plan to connect our borders with our neighboring countries via rail.”

The ministry said the construction of railways between Afghansitan and its neighbours would speed up the flow of goods across the country’s borders.
Source: Quqnoos

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Routes from Afghanistan to China

Sunday, September 28th, 2008

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.”

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China’s role in Afghan copper project

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

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’

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Tajikistan to Iran via Afghanistan

Saturday, September 6th, 2008

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

Dr Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Minister of Foreign Affairs

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.

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Tajikistan – Afghanistan – Iran railway to be discussed in Kabul

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

The project is to be discussed in Kabul next week, according to the first deputy head of the Tajik Railways, quoted in a story from Asia-Plus. There is currently no rail link between Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

Construction of railroad linking Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran to be discussed in Kabul next week
Author: Daler Ghufronov

DUSHANBE, July 15, 2008, Asia-Plus — Issues related to construction of a railway that will link Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran will be discussed at a meeting of officials of the three countries that is expected to take part in Kabul next week, Vladimir Sobkalov, the first deputy head of the Tajik Railways, announced at press conference in Dushanbe on July 14.

Sobkalov noted that a joint communiqué pledging tripartite cooperation in the energy and transport sectors was signed by foreign ministers of Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran in Dushanbe last March. A railway link connecting Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran is part of the project for construction of Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Iran highway.

The Tajik side has already prepared its proposals on the construction of the mentioned railroad, the Tajik Railways official said.

We will recall that the trilateral summit that is scheduled to take part in Dushanbe next month on sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will consider this issue.

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Kabul to China railway via Dushanbe?

Sunday, June 22nd, 2008

Railway Gazette International June 2008 reports:

At a meeting with his Iranian and Afghan counterparts, the Foreign Minister of Tajikistan proposed that a railway which is planned to serve a Chinese copper mining concession at Aynak, east of Kabul, be routed through Kunduz, Panj and then to the Tajik capital Dushanbe. A line would be built up the Vakhsh River valley and onwards to Kashi in China. This route avoids the difficult Wakhan corridor.

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Railway from Tajikistan to Afghanistan

Sunday, March 12th, 2006

BISNIS reports on a plan for a Railway from Tajikistan to Afghanistan

DUSHANBE, February 2006, Avesta – Construction of railroad Kolkhozobod – Nizhniy Pyanj (Tajikistan) – Kunduz (Afghanistan) will cost over $100 million. The project was elaborated by Tajik specialists and adjusted with Afghan colleagues. The project provides for two stages of the construction. The investment project was submitted to all international financial institutes and countries-donors for consideration.

Google also finds this story from 20 June 2005:
AFGHANISTAN-TAJIKISTAN: New bridge to provide key economic link

Efforts to boost the economies of both Tajikistan and Afghanistan moved one step further on Saturday, when Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov and Afghan President Hamid Karzai laid the foundation stone for a US-funded bridge across the Pyanzh River.

…

“In the future we will lay electricity, gas and water lines through this bridge. We also hope that next to this bridge will be built another bridge designed for the Dushanbe-Kurghonteppa-Kunduz railway,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RE) quoted Tajik President Rakhmonov as saying.

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