Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 17
By Huseyn Hasanov – Trend:
Tajikistan will submit an agreement on the construction of a railway with Afghanistan that will link the two countries with Turkmenistan for signing by the end of the summer, Trend reports referring to Tajik media.
The Asia-Plus Agency, in turn, quotes the First Deputy Minister of Transport of Tajikistan, Suhrob Mirzozoda, from a press conference in Dushanbe. According to him, the matter was discussed during a meeting of the Tajik-Afghan Intergovernmental Committee on Trade and Economic Cooperation, where the subject of project financing was also touched upon.
It is expected that the route will run from the Jaloliddin Balkhi District to the Lower Panj and further to Afghanistan’s Sherkhan Bandar–Kunduz–Mazari Sharif–Sheberghan–Andkhoy–Aqina.
The trilateral memorandum on the construction of the Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Turkmenistan railway was signed in March 2013.
In November 2016, a railway from the Turkmen city of Atamyrat (now known as Kerki) to the Afghan settlement of Aqina was launched in eastern Turkmenistan.
Turkmen workers completed the construction of the Atamyrat–Ymamnazar section, paved the road across the Turkmen-Afghan border, and also extended a branch from the Turkmen border village of Ymamnazar to the Afghan settlement of Aqina.
Moreover, 2 stations were set up as part of the project - the Gulistan and Ymamnazar, as well as 2 large bridges across Turkmenistan’s Karakum River.