Author: Andrew Grantham

German plan for Hayratan – Mazar-i-Sharif railway

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A report from the Gulf Times of 31 August 2008.

German army proposes new Afghan rail link

The German military is considering building a railway line in northern Afghanistan to ease transport of Nato supplies to the country and boost economic activity in the area, a German news magazine reported yesterday.

Apart from a short stretch from Uzbekistan, Afghanistan has almost no functioning railways, with less than 25km of track in the entire country. A number of railways leading towards Afghanistan stop short of the border.

The proposed 67km stretch would link the northern city of Mazar-I-Sharif with the Uzbek town of Termez, where the German air force has a base, Der Spiegel magazine reported.

Germany currently has an agreement with Moscow permitting it to transport supplies via rail through Russia to Afghanistan. The new link would greatly ease supplies to Germany’s biggest Afghan base at Mazar-i-Sharif.

The cost of the proposed railway has not been calculated but the military is hoping for financial contributions from Germany’s development agency and from international organisations, stressing the economic benefits, Spiegel said.

The line would connect with an existing Soviet-built rail and road bridge crossing the Amu Darya River which separates the Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. The bridge, built in 1982, was closed by the Taliban in 1997 after they took control of the area and was reopened in late 2001.

Germany and Uzbekistan signed a transit agreement on 4 March 2008.

Update: Here is the original article in Der Spiegel: Bundeswehr plant den Bau einer Bahnlinie in Afghanistan (German army plans to build a railway line in Afghanistan), dated August 30.

Uzbek-Afghan rail co-operation discussed

Posted on by Andrew Grantham

Uzbek news agency УзА (UZA) has a report about a recent official visit which discussed Afghan railway projects. Google’s automatic translation and a bit of tidying up gives something like this, although I don’t speak Russian so it might not be quite right!

Visiting Afghan delegation

On 27 August a delegation from Afghanistan headed by Ali Safari Sohrobom, Minister of Public Works, met Akbar Shukurovym, Deputy Chairman of state railway company Uzbekiston Temir Yullari.

During the meeting they stressed the importance of the promotion of mutual cooperation in such spheres as trade, the economy, energy, transport and communications, the legal basis for which agreements [were, will be?] reached during meetings of the heads of state of Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.

Links between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan in the field of transport and communications are important. During the meeting the sides exchanged views on expanding co-operation between the two countries in the field of railway transport.

No more details are given, unfortunately.

Afghan railway mentioned in UK parliamentary answer

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House of Commons, Written Answers 21 November 2007

International Development
Afghanistan: Railways

Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what railway construction projects are (a) planned and (b) under way in Afghanistan.

Mr. Malik: Many bulk commodities are brought by rail to Afghanistan’s borders and then transported by truck around the country. In early 2006 Afghanistan began work on a railway project connecting Hirat [Herat] city to the Iranian border at Sangan. 60 per cent. of the project is funded by the Iranian Government. Discussion is under way on constructing lengthier railways in Afghanistan. However, there needs to be a very careful economic cost-benefit analysis of any major railway investments to ascertain whether this is the best use of investment resources as compared with other priority investments.

The Government of Afghanistan plan to focus on improving roads and airports as priority areas of transport over the next five to 10 years, as outlined in the draft Afghanistan National Development Strategy (AMDS) transport sector plan. Railhead transfer stations at the borders are likely to be improved so that the cost of changing freight from trains to trucks is lowered, thus lowering the cost of Afghanistan’s international trade.

Sangan in Iran’s Khorasan province is the terminus of a 148 km branch from Torbate-Heydariyeh.

15th ministerial conference of non-aligned countries in Tehran

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News dated August 6 2008 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan, regarding the 15th ministerial conference of non-aligned countries.

Minister Spantas Press conference in Kabul

In the sidelines of this conference the Foreign Ministers of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan had a bilateral meeting they talked about the cementing of the bilateral ties between the countries, construction of a railway track from the border areas of Turkmenistan to Afghanistan and various issues of interests came under discussion.

Afghan president mentions through rail route

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Speaking to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation’s Heads of State Summit in Colombo last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said

As part of the contract with a Chinese consortium for the exploration of the Aynak copper deposit, a railway line will be constructed which will connect Central Asia to South Asia, thereby expediting the transport of people and goods within the region and beyond.

The suggestions of passenger transport, and a through north-south link, are interesting.

The project was announced last November. A consortim of China Metallurgical Group Corporation and Jiangxi Copper Co would build a railway line from the town of Hairatan on the Amu Darya bordering Uzbekistan, through Logar and to Torkham on the Pakistan border to export the minerals.

Georgian conflict a threat to Afghan transit plan?

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The potential implications of the current Georgian situation for proposed NATO rail transit traffic to Afghanistan via Uzbekistan are considered at Ghosts of Alexander. The initial Central Asian transit route agreement that was reached earlier this year had the approval of Russia says Russia, Georgia, NATO and Afghanistan, asking Is it doomed? Is it just one of several bargaining chips that Russia has (the big one being energy)?

There is a link to a handy map of Uzbekistan’s railways.

An earlier posting on Registan.net, Termez, Where the “T” Is for “Transit”, considers the problems of supplying NATO in Afghanistan. The few rails that operate along the Amu Darya have major rail break problems, in that they operate at a different gauge than their neighbors. This tells me freight can make it only as far as Termez, and from there is must be either shipped or flown to its final destination.

This is not quite right – the break-of-gauge is between the former USSR and elsewhere (except Finland and Mongolia, which use “Russian” gauge). There are transhipment and dual-gauge facilities around the various borders, so a wagon could in theory run from (say) Poland to Afghanistan without the gauge being an issue.

The two existing lines in Afghanistan are to the 1520 mm Russian gauge, though the line from Iran to Herat will be standard gauge.

Tajikistan – Afghanistan – Iran railway to be discussed in Kabul

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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.

Atamyrat to Afghanistan railway plan

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On July 12 the State News Agency of Turkmenistan reported a plan for the construction of a new railway to Afghanistan, starting from Atamurat (formerly Kerki) in eastern Turkmenistan.

The project was discussed at the first meeting of the snappily-titled intergovernmental Turkmen-Afghani commission for trade and economic and technical co-operation, which was held in Ashgabat this month.

Intergovernmental Turkmen-Afghani commission meets in Ashgabat

The opportunities for further co-operation in energy industry and the sphere of transport and communication including railway and motor transport were a focus of the talks. It was noted that by concerting efforts Turkmenistan and Afghanistan occupying the favourable geographical position could ensure transit freight traffic across their territories to the north-south and the east-west. In this regard the Turkmen partners expressed the willingness to connect the national railway networks of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. In particular, Turkmenistan intended to finance the construction of a branch line from Turkmen town of Atamurat to the Turkmen-Afghan border that would give Afghanistan an outlet to other countries of the region.

Atamurat/Atamyrat was formerly called Kerki, until the previous president (of personality cult fame) renamed it in honour of his father, who had been born there. While Afghanistan doesn’t really have a “national railway network” yet, the 1520 mm gauge Turkmen line from Turkmenabat to Atamyrat opened in 1999, providing a link between two parts of the Turkmen network to eliminate the need to go round through Boukhara in Uzbekistan.

Turkmentel – 2007 explains:

Owing to the thought over, far-sighted and steady decisions of the First President of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Turkmenbashy the Great for years of independence the railway branch became one of priority directions in the field of communications and has achieved the new high level of development.
…
In the end of 1999 construction of railway Turkmenabat-Atamyrat by extention of 203 km is completed. This branch line, having connected five regional centers of Lebap area with the city of Turkmenabat, and also with capital Ashgabat, passes on the left coast of Amu Darya river.

Supermap might help explain the arrangement of railways in Turkmenistan.

Searching Google Earth, this could well be the station at Atamyrat, with a line heading off south then looping round towards the construction site for a bridge over the Amu Darya (which seems to have run into political complications during construction).

View Larger Map

The railway appears to carry some Afghan traffic at present, presumably transhipped to or from road transport (or maybe barge?):
Text of report by Turkmen newspaper Neytralnyy Turkmenistan on 26 January 2007.

A [railway] loading station for cargo transported via the Turkmenabat-Atamyrat railway line [in eastern Turkmenistan] has been put into operation. Weighing facilities and a set of loading and unloading equipment are located on the station’s territory, which measures 80,500 sq m.

A network of storage facilities is being installed at the station as well. Some of them are designed for short-term storage of cargo from neighbouring Afghanistan. The others will be used for goods from economic entities in the Gulustan newly-developed desert area and along the Garagum canal.

Turkmenistan already has a short cross-border railway link to Towraghondi in Afghanistan.

Crossing the Friendship Bridge

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Here are some links to various articles on the Friendship Bridge, which carries the railway from Termiz/Termez in Uzbekistan, over the Amu Darya river to a freight terminal at Hairaton/Hayraton/(and various other transliterations) in Afghanistan. The nearest town to the Uzbek end is Mangusar.

Friendship BridgeU.S. Army Civil Affairs personnel visit the Termez bridge to assess its usability for supporting the transport of humanitarian aid from Uzbekistan, to the northern provinces of Afghanistan, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, Dec. 18, 2001. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo)

War Zones for Idiots describes American Tom Bissell’s journey into Afghanistan over the Friendship bridge: A trim two-lane span with shallow train tracks running down the center, the bridge was splendid, solid, clean – until we came to its indisputably Afghan side. Suddenly graffiti streaked along the girders, all of it scrawled in indecipherable Arabic-alphabet Persian.

Travelling from Termez, he found

A converse silhouette of crosshatched white girders, the bridge was perhaps five hundred yards from where we stood. Before us a grassy bay of thigh-high vegetation swung back and forth in the breeze. A quarter-mile away, on the other side of the motionless Amu Darya River—as unremarkable as I imagined the view of North Dakota might appear from South Dakota—was Afghanistan.

Some cows, looking legless in the tall grass, drank from pools of swampy standing water near the river, which was itself blocked off with electrified fence and cyclonic coils of barbed wire. Michael thought that some great photos of the Friendship Bridge could be snapped from deeper in the field, and convinced me to follow him.

“Nyet, nyet!” our driver Sobir yelled. We turned, already up to our knees in the grass. He began calling out a single word in Russian while performing an ominous-looking hand motion. I asked Michael what this word meant. He said nothing, his mouth squirming thoughtfully within his blond goatee. He looked at his feet, and then around them.

“He’s saying,” Michael began, “that there are landmines here.”

In this travel blog tourists leave Afghanistan in 2007. Includes a photo of the deck showing the railway.

There is photo of the Russians leaving in 1989 (here is a news report from the Guardian archive), and also a rug design possibly inspired by the bridge, on an Australian website which has almost everything you could possibly need to know about Afghan War Rugs [now there is something which conjures up a strange image – coming next, the Doormats of Mass Destruction?].

A news article on reopening of the bridge in 2001.

Photo, collection of five pictures of the bridge area. I think the armoured vehicles in the river could be BTR-70s, but identification of drowned military kit isn’t exactly my speciality.

Kabul to China railway via Dushanbe?

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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.