TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, November 2. The construction of the Trans-Afghan Railway and the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan-China railway will start in 2024, Minister of Transport of Uzbekistan Ilkhom Makhkamov said, Trend reports.
"For the time being, our primary goal in terms of the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan-China railway is to build a railway project within Kyrgyzstan." "Three-party feasibility studies have been prepared on this subject, and we are currently in discussions to determine who will be responsible for its execution," the minister stated.
The minister stated that the expected cost of the construction project as of September 2023 was $5-7 billion; however, the financing plan for the completed project remains uncertain.
The China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway is a proposed 454-kilometer rail link that would connect China's and Uzbekistan's railway networks via Kyrgyzstan.
Makhkamov stated that the Trans-Afghan Railway project, which spans 600 kilometers, was previously estimated to cost $4.8 billion.
"With the rise of the Taliban to power, progress on the project was halted." However, preliminary work to define the railway's path and analyze its feasibility had begun by July 2022, according to Makhkamov.
The official also stated that the project is still in its early stages, and that a preliminary technical specification is being produced to aid in the preparation of a feasibility study. To accomplish this, the three parties are collaborating to acquire project finance.
Meanwhile, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan agreed to start building the Termez-Mazar-Kabul-Peshawar railway in February 2021.
According to the project's estimations, the new transport corridor with a transit capacity of up to 20 million tons of goods should connect the European Union, Russia, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and other Southeast Asian countries.