German blog Soldatenglück has a German-language article about the Bundeswehr’s reported plan to extend the Uzbekistan — Hayratan line to Mazar-i-Sharif.
Hayratan
Hayratan – Herat railway memorandum signed
Asian Development Bank announces that a memorandum has been signed highlighting the importance of developing a railway line
to Mazar-i-Sharif and Herat from the current Uzbekistan railways railhead at Hairatan. The Afghan government has requested technical and financial assistance
from ADB for a pre-feasibility study.
It was recently reported by Der Spiegel that the German military is allegedly interested in building a long-planned railway extension from Hayratan to Mazar-i-Sharif. Meanwhile, Herat will be the terminus of a line currently being built from Iran, offering the possibility of an Uzbekistan to Iran route; Uzbekistan and Iran also recently signed co-operation agreements.
In the past railway proposals for Afghanistan seem to have focused on the south of the country, with international lines to Pakistan, but current plans seem to be oriented north and west.
The gauge question will presumably rear its head with any Uzbekistan – Iran link, as the Iranian line will be standard gauge (1435 mm), but the existing line from Uzbekistan to Hayratan is 1520 mm broad gauge. Putting the break-of-gauge in Herat could be the obvious answer?
Uzbekistan and Afghanistan have also agreed Rules for Passenger Transport & Freight Accounts for the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan Railway. The reference to passengers is interesting, as I’ve not heard of Afghanistan having a passenger service since the demise of the Kabul to Darulaman steam line. Perhaps cross-border passenger services are planned – or maybe it is just a formallity, and they thought they may as well include passengers when working out the details of freight transport?
Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and ADB Sign Memorandum of Understanding for Railway Transport Cooperation
BAKU, AZERBAIJAN – Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to expand trade and economic opportunities through railway transport.
The MOU, signed on the eve of the Seventh annual Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Ministers’ Conference in the Azerbaijan capital, recognizes the potential for growth in railway freight traffic, including transit freight traffic, between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.
“With the MOU, we will be taking a major step toward realizing the dream of expanded trade and economic opportunities for larger Central Asia,” said Mr Zhao Xiaoyu, ADB Vice-President (Operations 2). Afghanistan Minister of Finance, Dr Anwar-Ul-Haq Ahady and Uzbekistan Minister for Foreign Economic Relations, Investment and Trade, Mr Elyor Ganiev signed on behalf of their governments.
With the MOU, the Afghanistan Government underlined the importance of developing a railway line between the Afghan cities of Hairatan which borders Uzbekistan through Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat. The Afghanistan Government has requested technical and financial assistance from ADB in order to prepare a pre-feasibility study for the proposed railway project. Uzbekistan will give its full cooperation in the conduct of the study.
A Project Working Group, comprising representatives from both countries will supervise the study and explore other regional cooperation initiatives between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan in the field of transport and trade facilitation.
Transport sector development is vital for sustained growth and poverty reduction in this landlocked region and railways are a critical part of the transport sector in the region.
In support of the initiative, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan recently signed the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan Boundary Railway Agreement; the Freight Transportation Rules for the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan Railway; and Rules for Passenger Transport and Freight Accounts for the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan Railway.
The Asian Development Bank is a multilateral development bank, owned by 67 member countries. ADB’s main instruments for developing its member countries are policy dialogue, loans, equity investments, guarantees, grants and technical assistance. This year ADB adopted Strategy 2020, a long-term strategic framework that follows three complementary strategic agendas: inclusive growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration.
Further information about the ADB and CAREC can be found at http://www.adb.org/carec
Source: Asian Development Bank news release 20 November 2008
Developing Afghanistan – Uzbekistan transport links
A press release from Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs detailing reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, including the development of rail and other transport links via the Friendship Bridge and Hayratan.
At the end it gives a few more details of the official visit to Uzbekistan by an Afghan delegation back in August.
On participation of the Republic of Uzbekistan in post-war reconstruction of Afghanistan
27.10.2008 19:46 Press-Release
On participation of the Republic of Uzbekistan in post-war reconstruction of Afghanistan
Uzbekistan is taking an active part in efforts of international community aimed at enhancing stability and thorough development of Afghanistan, and attaches a significant importance to friendly and good neighborly relations with this country. It is conditioned not only by common borders but also by mutual interest of cooperation in the name of ensuring peace, stability and progress in the region.
In December 2002, the Government of Uzbekistan with a view to ensure effective provision of aid rendered by the world community to Afghanistan, adopted a resolution on opening the Hayraton bridge at the Uzbek-Afghan border. In November 2003, Ayritom customs complex started operating in Termez city.
On the outcomes of 2007, the volume of humanitarian cargo going via Ayritom check-point accounted for 1.2 million tons.
Upon the request of Afghan Government, Uzbekistan constructed 11 bridges between the cities of Mazari-Sharif and Kabul. These communication facilities have ensured uninterrupted link between the North and East of the country at the initial stage of economic reconstruction of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
Power supply to Afghanistan was restored at the beginning of 2002. In 2007 Uzbekistan exported 20 megawatt of electricity to Afghanistan. Following commissioning of Hayraton – Puli Humri– Kabul power line the volume of power supply to Afghanistan can be increased at the initial stage up to 150 megawatt and eventually up to 300 megawatt.
In June last year the Protocol of Negotiations between Uzbekenergo State Joint-Stock Company and the Ministry for Energy and Water Resources of Afghanistan was signed. The document has defined concrete directions of cooperation for increasing the volumes of power supply to Afghanistan up to 300 megawatt.
In June 2007, the first session of Uzbek-Afghan Intergovernmental commission for trade and economic cooperation was held as a part of the efforts of both sides aimed at extending the scope of bilateral cooperation.
Uzbekistan is rendering all possible assistance to Afghanistan in restoring its national economic system. Particularly, Uzbekistan has been supplying to Afghanistan fuel, construction materials, metal-roll, fertilizers, foodstuff, etc.
The volume of trade between countries is steadily increasing. In 2006 it accounted for USD 163.7 million, including exports – USD 161.7 million and imports – USD 2.0 million.
In 2007 the trade totaled USD 332.3 million, including exports – USD 331.4 million and imports USD 0.9 million.
Currently, 122 companies with participation of Afghan business people are operating in Uzbekistan, of them 39 have been established at the expense of 100% foreign capital.
Uzbekistan and Afghanistan have established quite active political dialogue. For over the last two years the first Vice-President of Afghanistan, Chairman of Senate, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Energy, Minister of Trade, as well as the Adviser to President of Afghanistan for national security visited Uzbekistan.
In 2008 the Afghan delegation led by Minister of Energy and Water Economy of Afghanistan visited Uzbekistan twice.
The sides have discussed construction of 200 kilovolt-capacity, 43-km-long power line starting from Surkhan (Surkhandarya Province) substation to Hayraton (Afghanistan).
Construction works shall be carried out by the Uzbek side.
On August 26-27 this year the first round of talks between the delegations of two countries was held in Tashkent. The prospects of Uzbek-Afghan cooperation on constructing Hayraton-Mazari-Sharif railroad have been discussed in the course of the meeting.
Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Uzbekistan
Berlin to Afghanistan freight
In 2007 equipment for the German military at Mazar-e-Sharif was sent by rail from Berlin to Hayratan, taking 28 to 32 days to cover around 6000 km via Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
STUTE unterstützt Bundeswehr mit kompetenter Transportlogistik (PDF) is a German-language article about it published by STUTE.
German plan for Hayratan – Mazar-i-Sharif railway
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.
Afghan president mentions through rail route
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
.
Crossing the Friendship Bridge
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.
U.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.
“A dismal place with a railway yard”
An article in Dawn dated May 14, 2006 quotes M H A Beg visiting Central Asia to follow Babar‘s passage from the Amu Darya to Nilab:
Babar must have crossed the river Amu somewhere near Termiz. This is the famous crossing site of men and armies. The most famous in recent history being the Russian army of 1979 through the Bridge of Friendship, named in contrast to the act of invasion.
The bridge still stands. It is used by the trade traffic. Not only does it have a road but also a railway crossing from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan. To establish a station for unloading goods, they built a town named Hayratan, a dismal place with a railway yard and some houses belonging to the railway workers and army personnel. The town is so recent that it doesn’t even show on some of the older maps of Afghanistan. These days you cannot go on the bridge directly, but a guard will direct you to a place from where the bridge and Amu Darya are within sight.
The bridge is a steel construction, painted pale yellow on the top. Amu is a big river in the region, made famous in Arabic historical writings as the “Nehar”. Arab historians have given the area beyond a name so beautiful and descriptive, “Mavara-un-nehar”. The railway does not go beyond Hayratan. This is the only part of Afghanistan where there is a railway built by the invading Russians. It is their legacy.
Babar writes in his book that after crossing the Amu on a raft, he landed in Afghan Turkistan where he was greeted by vast flat grasslands.
Fuel Line Vol. 3, 2006 from Defense Energy Support has an article “Voruz Earns Bronze Star Thanks to Many Logistics Professionals”. This describes removing a vast quantity of fuel from a US base in Uzbekistan to one in Afghanistan in a hurry during 2005, by rail and lorry. There is a small photo of railway tracks at Hayratan.
Uzbek TEM2 crossing the Afghan border
Photos of a train crossing the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan border, taken by Australian humanitarian relief worker Liz Johnson. The loco is an Uzbek Railways’ TEM2 diesel, built at the Bryansk Engineering Works in Russia to a design which evolved from some US Alco locos supplied to the USSR under the World War II lend-lease scheme.
Photos of the Hayratan rail terminal
The website of the UAE-based Azizi Hotak General Trading Group has some December 2007 photographs of rail operations at Hairaton terminal in Afghanistan, showing Uzbek Railways’ loco TEM2 3199.