A railway link connecting Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, which is part of the Lapis Lazuli Corridor project, was officially inaugurated by the leaders of the two countries on November 28, according to Turkmenistan’s national news agency TDH.
The goal of the Lapis Lazuli Corridor is to see Afghanistan connected to Turkey, and consequently Europe, through transit nations Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Georgia as part of a vision to relieve the country’s remoteness from lucrative trading routes.
Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov reportedly described developing transportation infrastructure as a top priority for the Turkmen government.
Turkmen government’s official website cited Afghan President Ashraf Ghani as hailing the importance of the railway for international cooperation.
The segment of newly inaugurated railroad stretches 88 kilometers from Atamurat in Turkmenistan to the Ymamnazar border crossing and ends in the Afghan settlement of Aqina, the Turkmen state news agency reported. Two stations — Gulistan and Ymamnazar — have also been built from scratch along the route, Turkmen national news agency said.
Recall, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia in mid-November signed an agreement on the creation of the “The Lapis Lazuli Corridor,” which will enable Afghanistan to get the shortest access to the Black and Mediterranean seas. This corridor connects Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey via road and rail – which will create a key transit trade route through Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Balkans to Central Europe – and also effectively connect South Asia to European countries.
The Lapis Lazuli Corridor starts in Aqina in northern Faryab province and Torghundi in western Herat province and continues through Turkmenbashi in Turkmenistan, then cross the Caspian Sea to Baku – Azerbaijan's capital. It will proceed to Tbilisi, Georgia's capital then to Turkey before joining the motorways and railway network to Europe.
Tajikistan could also join the Lapis Lazuli Corridor through the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan (TAT) railway.
Usmon Qalandarov, the deputy head of Tajik Railways (Tajikistan’s state railway company), however, says Tajikistan will intensify work on construction of its section of the TAT railway only after improvement of situation in the neighboring country.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has stopped financing the TAT railway project. Si Si Yu, ADB’s Country Director for Tajikistan, told reporters in Dushanbe on December 15, 2015 that the ADB has stopped financing the railway project because of the increasing tension in Afghanistan.
“We do not intend to finance construction of a railway in country where (Afghanistan) security is not guaranteed,” Yu said. “It’s very risky.”
“We will probably return to this project when the security situation in Afghanistan improves,” ADB’s country director for Tajikistan added.
Meanwhile, local experts believe that Tajikistan should strive for implementation of this project irrespective of domestic political scene in Afghanistan and possible thaw in relations with Uzbekistan.
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.
The 400-kilometer railroad is expected to connect the Afghan town of Aqina-Andkhoy to Atamurat-Ymamnazar in Turkmenistan and Panj in Tajikistan.
The presidents of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan officially inaugurated the construction of the railway connecting the three nations on June 5, 2013. The ceremony took place in Turkmenistan’s northeastern province of Lebap. They buried a time capsule with a message to future generations under the first section of the railway line near the town of Atamyrat.
The TAT railway, which has a regional strategic implication, will be a part of a broader regional transportation initiative that will open a new transit corridor between Central Asia and world markets through Indian Ocean ports, a route less than half as long as Central Asian existing railway export options through Russia to the Baltic Sea coast.
