Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Feb. 2
By Huseyn Hasanov– Trend:
In 2018, over 400 trains from Kazakstan travelled via the border railway station Bolashak to Turkmenistan, which is twice as much as in 2017, Trend reports referring to Kazakhstan Railways.
Kazakhstan mainly transports wheat, flour, milling products, barley, oats, lentils. All products are exported to Turkmenistan, Iran and Afghanistan.
Freight traffic passes through the Bolashak - Serhetyaka section, which is part of the transnational railway corridor connecting these Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan with Iran.
Through Bolashak, transit freight trains operate along the route Altynkol-Bolashak-Serkhetyaka-Ak Yayla (Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan). Trains mainly transport spare parts for cars, electronic equipment and household goods.
In December 2014, the project for the construction of the transnational railway Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran was completed.
According to preliminary calculations, the annual volume of transportation may eventually amount to 10-12 million tons of cargo.
Along this trade route, goods can be freely transported to the countries of the Persian Gulf, to the Indian Ocean, and exported to Europe. In 2016, Kazakhstan joined the Central Asia-Middle East transport corridor project (Uzbekistan - Turkmenistan - Iran - Oman).
The new corridor will allow the Central Asian countries to connect with the Persian and Omani ports along the optimal route in the future.