DUSHANBE, July 1, 2015, Asia-Plus — Turkmen national news agency
TDH
reports that Turkmenistan has constructed 45 kilometers of its section of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan (TAT) railway.
Construction of the Atamurat-Ymamnazar section of the rail link that will connect the three countries is under way.
According to the Turkmen Ministry of Transport, the issue of implementation of this project was discussed in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, in April during a meeting of the Tajik-Turkmen intergovernmental commission for trade and economic cooperation.
The commission reportedly recommended that the sides continue implementing this regional infrastructure development project.
We will recall that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for construction of the rail link connecting the three countries was signed during a trilateral meeting of the presidents of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan that took place in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat on March 20, 2013 on the sidelines of the International Navrouz Celebrations.
The 400-kilometer railroad is expected to connect the Afghan town of Akina-Andkhoy to Atamurat-Ymamnazar in Turkmenistan and Panj in Tajikistan.
Turkmenistan, which hosted a groundbreaking ceremony in June 2013 including presidents of all three countries, promised to finance its own 90-kilometer section, plus a 35-kilometer link to the northern Afghan town of Andkhoy.
The railway is supposed to diversify trade routes in one of the least-connected parts of Central Asia.
In report released at the news conference in Dushanbe, the then head of Tajik Railways, Amonullo Hukumatullo, revealed on January 29, 2014 that Dushanbe and Kabul had themselves decided on the route for the Afghan section of the rail. Hukumatullo said the new Afghan section was slightly over 200 kilometers, but shorter than the initial plan and thus would save Tajikistan in transit fees.
The announcement apparently caught Ashgabat by surprise because on January 31, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry protested that Hukumatullo’s declaration was “tendentious and absolutely unacceptable” and “counterproductive.”
Tajikistan has hoped the 400-kilometer railway would help it bypass Uzbekistan, through which all its Soviet-era rails pass.
