Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Aug. 27 / Trend D. Azizov /
Uzbekistan Railways has started electrifying two sections of the railway in the south from Marokand to Termez with a total cost of $623 million, the railway company told Trend on Monday.
Uzbekistan Railways representative said that the two Marokand - Karshi sections with a length of 140.8 kilometers and Karshi-Termez - 325 kilometers will be electrified in parallel.
The cost of Marokand-Karshi section electrification is $234.7 million. The project is financed by a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to the amount of $ 100 million and Uzbekistan Railways' own funds.
The cost of Karshi-Termez section electrification is $388.3 million. It is financed by a loan of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to the amount of $220.6 million and the railway company's own funds.
It is planned to complete electrifying Marokand-Karshi section in 2016, Karshi-Termez - in 2017.
According to the specialists, the implementation of these two projects will allow increasing passenger and freight turnover by 20 per cent in the south of the country. At present, a number of large investment projects is being implemented.
The electrification of these sections will also increase the transit of goods transported through Uzbekistan to neighboring Afghanistan.
After these projects are implemented, the share of electrified railway sections in the total length of Uzbek railways will increase from 36 to 47 percent.
About 1,528 of 4,200 kilometers of the Uzbek railways have been electrified. It is planned to electrify about 2,000 kilometers of railways.
According to the official statistics, about 60 percent of trade turnover in the country and almost 80 percent of the total volume of export and import cargo transportation fall to the Uzbek railways.