Uzbekistan expands co-op with China in construction of new international railway

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 14

By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:

China has proposed several options for the route of the new Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan-China railway, Trend reports citing the Ministry of Transport of Uzbekistan, as was announced after negotiations with members of the delegation of Chinese State Committee for Reform and Development, which recently took place at the Ministry.

"The parties discussed the progress of the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan-China railway construction project. The Chinese side made proposals on possible sections for the route of the railway. It was noted that the railway is important not only for one country, but for the development of the Central Asian region as a whole, " Uzbekistan's Ministry of Transport said in a statement.

In addition, issues of increasing the volume of multimodal transport between the two countries and the active development of joint road transport were discussed.

This new railway is the shortest route from China to the countries of Europe and the Middle East. Compared with existing routes, the distance will be reduced by 900 km, the delivery time of goods by 7-8 days. According to experts, the transportation of goods in the amount of at least 5 million tons per year can fully cover the cost of building the road.

The prospects of this project are demonstrated by the already established road transport corridor Kashgar - Irkeshtam - Osh - Andijan - Tashkent, which allowed carriers from Central Asia to directly go to China for the first time.

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