View Turkmenistan – Andkhoy railway plan in a larger map
Turkmenistan has completed construction of the 85 km Atamurat1 – Imamnazar2 section of the future Turkmenistan – Afghanistan – Tajikistan railway, Trend News Agency reports,3 citing a message from the Turkmen government (I can’t find this message – does anyone know if it is available online?).
Construction of the line was ceremonially launched on 5 June 2013. Earthworks are visible on Google Maps satellite photos, running in a straight line southwest from Atamurat.
Trend says two bridges and two stations are still to be completed, along with the final 3 km from Imamnazar in Turkmenistan across the border to Akina4 in Afghanistan. A planned 35 km continuation within Afghanistan would take the line to Andkhoy.
In the longer term, this line would be extended though northern Afghanistan to Tajikistan. “Commissioning of the railway will make this route an inseparable link of the modern ramified transport and communications infrastructure in the Asian region”, Turkmenistan’s official new agency said in September 2015.5
According to Turkmenistan’s offical website Golden Age, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani recently had a telephone conversation “on the initiative of the Afghan side”. During this conversation, Ghani “expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the Turkmen leader for laying a section of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan railway to the border of Afghanistan”.6
References
- Also written Atamyrat; formerly known as Kerki ↩
- Also written Ymamnazar, etc ↩
- Turkmenistan builds railway to Afghan borders, Huseyn Hasanov, Trend News Agency, 17 November 2015 ↩
- Also written Aqina, Acqina etc ↩
- President of Turkmenistan received the governmental delegation of Afghanistan, Türkmen döwlet habarlar agentligi, 17 September 2015 ↩
- Telephone conversation between the leaders of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, The Golden Age, 9 November 2015 ↩