DUSHANBE, December 13, 2013, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan and China have set up the schedule of operation of the Kulma border-crossing checkpoint on the Tajik-Chinese border in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) for winter period, according to the Ministry of Transport (MoT).
An official source at a MoT says that although Tajikistan and China reached an agreement on a year-round operation of the Kulma crossing, the Chinese side has decided to set up a floating schedule of the Kulma crossing operation for winter period due to bad weather conditions.
“However, the schedule does not mean that the Kulma crossing will be closed in winter period. Vehicle may proceed via the crossing but drivers must be cautious on the road,” said the source. “In case of difficulties in the delivery of goods to Tajikistan via the Kulma crossing in winter period, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan highway may be used.”
We will recall that Tajikistan and China reached an agreement on a year-round operation of the Kulma border-crossing checkpoint in December 2011. Under the agreement signed in Dushanbe on December 29, 2011, a status of international crossing was given to the Kulma border-crossing checkpoint.
Since May 1, 2008, the Kulma crossing operated every day, except weekends, from May through November.
Opened in 2004, the Tajik-China trade route runs from Khorog, the capital of Gorno Badakhshan in southeastern Tajikistan, over a high-altitude plateau and then down into China, where it ends in the city of Kashgar, 700 kilometers away.
As conditions are so tough at the Kulma border crossing, which is located on a mountain pass 4,400 meters high, until May 1 2008, the gateway had stayed open only 15 days out of every month, while from November through April it had been closed altogether.
It should be noted that an average annual growth in trade between Tajikistan and China from 1992 to 2003 did not exceed 30 million U.S. dollars, while after introduction of the Kulma crossing into operation the average annual growth in trade between the two countries has considerably increased and in 2008, trade between Tajikistan and China exceeded 700 million U.S. dollars.
