DUSHANBE, January 21, 20010, Asia-Plus — State Unitary Enterprise Rohi Ohan (Tajik Railways) refrains from using Uzbek new branch Kumkurgan-Boysun-Tashguzar, Vladimir Sobkalov, the deputy head of Tajik Railways remarked at a news conference in Dushanbe on January 20.
“Although this line allows shortening the route by some 200 kilometers, Tajik trains running through this branch will require significant expenses,” said Sobkalov, “Carrying capacity of this link is low; thus one locomotive carries 4,800 tons of cargoes through common rail link, while three locomotives at the head and one small locomotive from behind are needed to carry just 2,800 tons of cargoes through this link.”
According to him, Tajik Railways cannot afford such expenses. “May be Uzbekistan tries to bypass Turkmenistan as well as us in any way, but we see no sense in carrying cargoes through this link,” Sobkalov stressed.
We will recall that the Uzbek branch, Kumgurgan-Boysun-Tashguzar-Karshi, was put into operation in August 2009. This 223-kilometer branch built by Uzbekistan to bypass Turkmenistan will allow decreasing travel time.
It is to be noted that Uzbekistan decided to revive this railway project in 2003 already. The January 29, 2003 CACI Analyst item titled “Uzbekistan to revive halted railway project to bypass Turkmenistan noted that Uzbekistan has decided to revive a railway project that would link several southern districts and bypass Turkmenistan. An Uzbek government decree issued in January 2003 ordered the construction of the Tashguzar-Boysun-Kumkurgan line be speeded up and finished in 2007. The line links the three district centers with the country”s main railway line connecting the capital Tashkent with other parts of the country. The new line allows trains heading from Tashkent for destinations in the southeast and on to Tajikistan to bypass Turkmenistan. Railway lines in Central Asia were laid before the region was cut into five Soviet republics in the 1920s, and traveling by train between different regions of the same country sometimes involves crossing through another country. The project to build the 223-kilometer line was launched in 1995 but was halted in several years for lack of funding.
