Projects

Afghanistan National Railway Plan at the CAREC Railway Working Group

Posted on by Andrew Grantham

The First Meeting of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation organisation’s Railway Working Group was held on Tokyo on 24-26 November 2015. The CAREC Railway Working Group was formed after the 14th CAREC Transport Sector Coordinating Committee Meeting which was held in Ulaanbaatar on 28-29 April 2015, and aims to guide the development of a short and medium-term railway strategy for the CAREC region.

Afghanistan National Railway Plan map

The presentations from the meeting can be downloaded from the CAREC website, and have a lot of interesting information about railways in the CAREC member countries.

Day 1 featured a presentation on the Afghanistan National Railway Plan and Way Forward by Mohammad Yamma Shams, Director General & Chief Executive Officer of the Afghanistan Railway Authority. This sets out current thinking under AfRA’s Afghanistan National Railway Plan, and the status of the various proposals for a 5500 km network.

ADB suspends TAT railway funding

Posted on by Andrew Grantham

According to a news report, on 15 December 2015 the Asian Development Bank’s Country Director for Tajikistan, Si Si Yu, told reporters that ADB had suspended its financial support for the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan railway owing to security risks.1

“Although Turkmenistan has completed construction of its section of the railway, we do not intend to finance construction of a railway in country where (Afghanistan) security is not guaranteed,” Yu said. “It’s very risky.” He said the ADB would “probably” return to the project “when the security situation in Afghanistan improves.”

I can’t spot any other reports on this, or an official announcement from ADB.

References

  1. ADB cuts support for construction of Afghan railway, Harun Varlı, Videonews, 16 December 2015 ↩

Turkmenistan’s Afghan border rail link nears completion

Posted on by Andrew Grantham


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

  1. Also written Atamyrat; formerly known as Kerki ↩
  2. Also written Ymamnazar, etc ↩
  3. Turkmenistan builds railway to Afghan borders, Huseyn Hasanov, Trend News Agency, 17 November 2015 ↩
  4. Also written Aqina, Acqina etc ↩
  5. President of Turkmenistan received the governmental delegation of Afghanistan, Türkmen döwlet habarlar agentligi, 17 September 2015 ↩
  6. Telephone conversation between the leaders of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, The Golden Age, 9 November 2015 ↩

Khyber Railway revival?

Posted on by Andrew Grantham

Steam train in Khyber Pass

“A railway track, spanning 145 kilometers, from Peshawar to Jalalabad is likely to be laid soon. Authorities are in the process of awarding contract for this ambitious project”, reports Afghan Zaria.1

The report says the government of Pakistan’s 2015-16 budget has allocated 620m rupees for a nine-month feability study, which would involve engineers from Pakistan and Afghanistan. NESpak, Mines Construction, Mine Hart, ILF (LIK), MMBP, Usmania Associates Karachi and “a company from China” have submitted tenders. Tracklaying could begun in 2017-18.

The request for proposals was issued in March 2015.

This is not the first time a railway to Jalalabad has been proposed, but so far railways have never crossed the border from the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan.

References

Photos from the Northern Afghanistan Railway Study

Posted on by Andrew Grantham

Turkmenistan – Afghanistan railway under construction

Posted on by Andrew Grantham

45 km of the Atamyrat (formerly Kerki) to Ymamnazar (Imamnazar) section of the Turkmenistan – Afghanistan – Tajikistan railway had been laid as of June 30, Turkmenistan: the Golden Age reported on 30 June 2015.

Construction of the line was ceremonially launched on 5 June 2013. In January 2014 it had been reported that the 85 km section could be completed by June 2015.

ACI design manager visits Canarail

Posted on by Andrew Grantham

Appleton Consulting Inc. is pleased to announce that one of its principal staff – Hasaun Shahir – as National Railway Track Design Engineer had been invited by its partner CANARAIL consulting head office to Montreal, Quebec (Canada) on the Northern Afghanistan Railway Study project.

The purpose of the visit was to coordinate and discuss various disciplines of the project and ensure everything was going well as per the client’s requirements.

[more…]

Source: ACI’s Design Manager Visits Canadian Strategic Partner’s Railway Design Team in Canada, Appleton Consulting Inc, 21 June 2015

CAREC railway plans

Posted on by Andrew Grantham

The 14th CAREC Transport Sector Coordinating Committee Meeting was held in Ulaanbaatar on 28-29 April 2015. Its webpage links to various presentations, which seem to contain some good stuff about Afghan and Central Asian railway development plans in a mixture of English and Russian.

One presentation by Kubatbek Rakhimov covers the Railway Development in Central Asia. The review of the Soviet period up to the present. This provides a quick overview of the strategic issues, in particular the problems arrising as a result of the unified Soviet rail network being fragmented as the USSR disolved and the newly-independent countries focused on building bypasses with their territory rather than on developing international corridors.

There was a presentation on the future CAREC railway network by ADB consultant Thomas Kennedy. This says the “new railway country of Afghanistan offers new route potential”. It explains that CAREC railways are still in the transition from a command economy to a market-based structure, while road transport is becoming more competitive, and there is a shift in trading partners and routes as China gains economic significance. There is a need to agree on a near-term strategic vision for CAREC railways, which also need changes in four primary areas: political/institutional, infrastructure, intergration/interoperability, technical. The most critical aspect is that railways need to understand the costs of their own services, as this is essential for setting pricing policies, business agreements and track access charges.

Kennedy concludes by saying the next step should be to identify a “designated rail corridor” for development as a pilot. This sounds like the situation in the EU, where it became apparent that it makes more sense to focus on international corridors, rather than on separate national projects which could end up leaving bottlenecks on important routes.

The CAREC Working Group on Railways sets out timescales, and sets out a two year timescale for the Khorgas – Tashkent – Termez – Mazar-i-Sharif or Aqina – Turkmenabat – Ashgabat – Aktau routes.

Peshawar to Jalalabad railway project RFP issued

Posted on by Andrew Grantham

Pakistan Railways issued an international request for proposals for a “Feasibility Study For New Rail Link Between Peshawar And Jalalabad Through Loi Shalman Valley” recently. I can’t track down exactly when it was issued, and the document is just dated “March, 2015”.

The Loi Shilman valley (spelling varies) is in the loop of the Kabul River to the north of the Khyber Pass, while Jalalabad is the first major settlement in Afghanistan, on the route from the Khyber Pass to Kabul. The Loi Shilman valley seems to be a pretty remote and obscure area, which has a small internet footprint compared to the famous pass to the south (I’ve not even found decent maps).

The consultants chosen will be required to propose at least three alternative corridors for the line, including the “existing Khyber railway alignment and the alignment through Lio-shalman valley etc”. Using the existing Khyber Railway would presumably mean the line would not actually pass through the Loi Shilman valley, which is further north.

The RFP documents can be downloaded from the Pakistan Railways website (if you can get it to work) or the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority website.

Proposals were initially required by 14.00 on 31 March 2015, but following a “pre-proposal conference” on 17 March, an addendum was issued on 24 March extending the deadline to 15 April 2015, and extending the timescale from nine months to 10 months.

The feasibility study

According to the RFP documentation:

Government of Pakistan has recently sanctioned PC-II for the feasibility study of construction of a new railway line from Peshawar to Jalalabad (Afghanistan). Pakistan Railway now intends to carry out this feasibility study in accordance with these Terms of Reference (TOR).

Most of the Project area is located in hilly terrain and the study aims at selecting and designing most suitable alignment for providing the proposed rail link for a design speed of 100 km/h. A map of the Pakistan Railway Network indicating the Project area is place as Appendix-A of this Terms of Reference. The Consultant will carry out the feasibility study in accordance with the Pakistan Railway’s specifications, design parameters and schedule of dimensions etc. For this study, the areas where Pakistan Railways specifications/design parameters are either not available or need any revision / updation, the European Norms (EN) and UIC/AREA standards will be followed with the prior approval of the Employer.

Afghanistan is a land-locked country and three gauges of railway track are in use in its neighboring countries; standard gauge (1435 mm) in Iran and China, broad gauge (1520 mm) in Central Asian States and broad gauge (1676 mm) in Pakistan. The Consultant shall propose the location (s) for change of gauge and arrangements for the trans-shipment at interchange points/stations. The study conducted by World Bank through HB Consultant Bangladesh may also be kept in view in this context while preparing the Feasibility Study Report.

2 OBJECTIVES OF THE FEASIBILITY STUDY

The objectives of the study are:

a. To estimate the present and future freight and passenger railway transportation demand between Peshawar and Jalalabad;
b. To determine the optimal technical solution for the construction and operation of a broad gauge (or Standard Gauge) railway between Peshawar and Jalalabad (hereinafter referred to as “the Project”);
c. To estimate the construction, operating and maintenance costs of the project based on the optimal technical solution at (b) above;
d. To establish the nature and magnitude of the environmental and social impacts of the optimal technical solution at (b) above, and to recommend measures necessary to mitigate the adverse impacts and/or enhance the positive impacts;
e. To establish a basis for the future detailed engineering design and construction bid documentation for the project;
f. To determine the economic and financial viability of the project basing on – among other factors – the rail transportation demand determined at (a) above and the development/operating/maintenance costs estimated at (c) above.

Source: Request For Proposals For Feasibility Study For New Rail Link Between Peshawar And Jalalabad Through Loi Shalman Valley, Pakistan Railways, March 2015

The RFP specifies a single track line suitable for 80 km/h freight and 100 km/h passenger trains, with diesel or electric traction. The line should be to either Pakistan’s 1676 mm broad gauge or to standard gauge (1435 mm, as used in China and Iran).

It is hard to see what purpose would be served by using standard gauge for this particular line; even if the Chinese eventually build a standard gauge railway to the Mes Aynak copper mine, a break of gauge on this section would make little sense.

Some history

There have been been past proposals for a railway through the Loi Shilman valley, with the British authorities undertaking surveys and actually starting work in the early 20th century.

Having rejected a route through the Khyber Pass, there were two options for a line from Peshawar to the Afghan frontier: one following the Kabul River gorge to an appropriate site for a terminus, and the other initially following the river route but then turning left and running up the Loi Shilman valley, with a significant tunnel needed to reach a suitable terminus on the side of the hills facing Afghanistan.

Construction of the line was approved as far as the point where the two potential routes diverged, pending a final decision on the rest of the alignment, and work began. However the Anglo-Russian Convention of St Petersburg in 1907 reduced the threat which the British military authorities felt Russia might pose to the northern frontier of India, and the civilian authorities were getting concerned about the rapidly increasing cost of the project. As a result, work was halted. Maps of the various alignments which were considered can now be found in the British Library.

Further surveys subsequently showed that a railway through the Khyber Pass was feasible, and the construction of this line which opened in 1925 made the Kabul River or Loi Shilman lines unnecessary. Although the Khyber Pass line never crossed into Afghanistan, preliminary studies were undertaken by the British for an possible extension to Dakka, the first suitable place for a major army camp, and from there to Jalalabad, as it was felt that the rapid construction of such a line could prove useful in the event of any future war with Afghanistan.

The Khyber Pass railway survived, albeit moribund, until sections were destroyed by floods in 2006-09.

Comment

This is a perhaps somewhat surprising idea for a brand new line, especially given the many problems which Pakistan Railways is currently reported to be facing on its existing network. While I cannot claim any knowledge of the area, I find it very hard to believe that anything other than a reinstatement of the out-of-use Khyber Pass line, perhaps combined with an extension to Jalalabad, could be even remotely viable.

I wonder if in reality this is about reinstating the Khyber Line, and the Loi Shilman route is there purely to give something to compare it with, or as a legal technicality to show that some alternative options have at least been considered?