Author: Andrew Grantham

Iran – Herat railway to open next year?

Posted on by Andrew Grantham

There are (once again!) reports that the railway under construction between Iran and Herat will open by the next Iranian new year, that is March 2018.

Iran’s Mehr News Agency reports that Hossein Ashouri, Deputy Head of Operations at Railways of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has said the line has now been built to the Afghan border. On the Afghan side of the border the civil works are in place but the tracks still need to be laid. Of the two construction phases on the Afghan side of the border, “foundations of one is 50% through while the figure for the other is 25%”.1

However the opening date for the line has long been a bit of a moving target, having been announced in previous years.

There are various news articles drawing on the same source, with assorted photographs which may or may not show the line in question – many do not.

References

  1. Railroad to connect Iran, Afghanistan, Mehr News Agency, 25 February 2017 ↩

Central Asian railway politics

Posted on by Andrew Grantham

Could the TAT railway become TUT?

Tajikistan is talking about constructing a new railway line that would connect the country to Russia via Uzbekistan. Some poorly considered language was used in the statement about this project and that was seized upon by Turkmenistan’s Foreign Ministry, which fired off an equally ill-advised statement rebuking Tajikistan.

[…]

the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan (TAT) railway line that finally made it from Turkmenistan into Afghanistan at the end of 2016.

Turkmen authorities might now wonder if Tajikistan could lose interest in TAT should the new railway project from Tajikistan through Uzbekistan advance.

[more…]

The Reasons Behind The Turkmen-Tajik Tiff, Bruce Pannier, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 29 January 2017.

CIA information on the Torghundi freight terminal

Posted on by Andrew Grantham

Turkmen Railways locomotive at Towraghondi

In an attempt to pin down more precisely the opening date of the railway from Serhetabat in Turkmenistan to Towraghandi in Afghanistan, I had a look at some CIA documents which are now publicly available.1

Presumably the CIA would have kept a close eye on transport links to the Soviet border.

My suspicion is that the railway was extended from Kushka into Afghanistan circa 1960-1964 as part of the Soviet-backed Kuskha – Herat – Khandahar road improvement project, which was agreed by the USSR and Afghanistan on 28 May 1959.2

A July 1964 US photographic interpretation report describes Soviet military facilities at Kushka (now known as Serhetabat),3 with photos and a map of the “supply depot and rail-to-road transfer point” located “6 km southwest of Kushka at the terminus of the Mary-Kushka branch rail line, approximately 3 km from the Afghanistan border”.

1964 Central Intelligence Agency map of rail facilities at Kushka
(Map: Central Intelligence Agency, 1964)

Although the site is shown in the report as being located on the Soviet side of the Afghan border, comparing the photos, map and the latitude and longitude shows that the rail facility which is being described is almost certainly the same thing as the current Towraghondi (to pick one of many spellings!) freight terminal, which is inside Afghanistan.

1964 Central Intelligence Agency map of rail facilities at Kushka
(Map: Central Intelligence Agency, 1964)

So it looks like the railway did exist by 1964, but we now have a question as to why the 1964 CIA document put the Soviet-Afghan border further south and west of the current Turkmenistan-Afghan border. As far as I know, the border in the area has not moved since being fixed in the late 19th century, and Soviet maps such as this one from 1985 show the current border with the railway extending into Afghanistan:

Soviet map showing the railway from Kushka to Towraghondi

References

  1. Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room, CIA ↩
  2. Central Intelligence Bulletin, 29 January 1969, CIA, USA ↩
  3. KUSHKA MILITARY AREAS KUSHKA, USSR TURKESTAN MD. Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78B04560A002400010012-9. NATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHIC INTERPRETATION CENTER, USA ↩

1425 km of railway by 2020?

Posted on by Andrew Grantham

“Following Brussels conference, efforts on card to construct 1,425km in the country up to the year of 2020”, said Head of Afghanistan Railway Authority Abdul Bari Sediqi.

He said that also Afghanistan Railway Authority will complete technical and primary survey of 2,025km railway till 2020.

[more]

Source: 1,425km railway to be constructed by 2020 in Afghanistan: MoPW, Afghanistan Times, 5 December 2016.

Presidents open Turkmenistan – Afghanistan railway

Posted on by Andrew Grantham

The railway from Atamyrat in Turkmenistan to the Ymamnazar border crossing point (85 km) and Afghanistan’s customs facilities at Akina (3 km) was officially opened on 28 November 2016 by Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani.1

The first freight train on the new line comprised 46 wagons carrying flour, grain, cement, carbamide, urea and sulphur.2 3

Construction of the line had been launched by the presidents of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan with an elaborate ceremony in Atamyrat on 5 June 2013, and a ceremony at Akina on 30 October 2016 marked the laying of the final rails.

A planned continuation of the line would extend it 35 km to Andkhoy, the first significant town in Afghanistan. The line also forms the first section of the proposed TAT Railway corridor from Turkmenistan via northern Afghanistan to Tajikistan.

The new line is the second cross-border railway between Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, after the short Soviet-built line to a freight terminal at Towraghondi, north of Herat.

References