DUSHANBE, April 11, Asia-Plus – Tajikistan’s Railways is currently experiencing an acute shortage of cargo cars, Usmon Qalandarov, the head of the economic department of the Tajik Railways, said.
According to him, they need another more than 200 cargo cars. “We are taking efforts to tackle this problem,” said Qalandarov, “Over the first three months of the year, we have purchased 12 cargo cars and plan to have purchased another 36 cargo cars by the end of the yea due to our own reserves.”
On the cargo shipment by rail transportation, Mashhura Nabiyeva, the chairperson of the loading-and-unloading department of the Tajik Railways, said that despite existing problem the cargo shipment over the report period had increased compared to January-March 2006.
“Over the first quarter of the year, 3.6954 million tons of cargo have been shipped by the rail transportation, which is 12 percent more than in the same period of 2006,” she said, noting that 239,000 tons of cargo were brought out and 1.05674 million tons of cargo were delivered to the country.
According to her, cargoes delivered to Tajikistan include alumina (the raw material used to produced aluminum), grains and wheat flour, oil products, building materials, and cargoes brought out include aluminum, cotton, farm produce, fresh and tinned fruits and vegetables.
The Tajik Railways was founded in October 1994. Tajikistan’s rolling-stock currently includes 1,800 cargo cars, 314 passenger carriages and 57 diesel locomotives.
At present Tajik Railways offers three routes to the Russian Federation (Dushanbe-Moscow, Kulob-Moscow, Khujand-Saratov) and four domestic routes (Dushanbe-Konibodom, Qurghon Teppa-Konibodom, Dushanbe-Pakhtaobod and Qurghon Teppa-Kulob).
The total length of rails in Tajikistan is 950 kilometers; of that, 680 kilometers are the main railways.
