Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 6
By Huseyn Hasanov- Trend:
The construction of the Turkmen section of the new "North-South" railway which would connect Kazakhstan and Iran has been completed, according to the Turkmen government's report.
"A good news about the end of the construction of the section passing through the territory of Turkmenistan of the " North-South " railway" was announced at the meeting of the Kazakh Cabinet of Ministers, the report said.
The report was made after the implementation of the governmental inspection of
construction project of the Uzen-Gyzylgaya-Bereket-Etrek-Gorgan railway (Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran).
Turkmen President Gurbangulu Berdimuhamedov said in early June that this railway transport artery will be commissioned in 2014.
The 'North-South' project is being realized on the basis of an agreement signed in 2007 by Turkmenistan, Iran and Kazakhstan. A project was launched in May, 2013 to link the railways on the Kazakh-Turkmen border.
The new railway will provide a convenient and economical transportation of goods to South Asia, to the Gulf ports, as well as in the opposite direction -to the Eastern Europe through Russia.
It is expected that it will be possible to modally redistribute transit goods, i.e. shifting transportation from motor, marine and air transport to railway transport.
Initially, this railway will transport up to three or five million tonnes of cargo per year.
In the future the cargo transportation volumes will increase to 10-12 million tonnes per year.
The project is being implemented with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank.
Turkmenistan has land borders with Kazakhstan, Iran, Russia, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. The country also borders on the Caspian Sea with Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Iran.