KHOROG, November 27, 2008, Asia-Plus — The border-crossing point Kulma on the Tajik-Chinese border in GBAO’s Murgab district will be closed for traffic on December 1 for five months, Asia-Plus has learned from Yormamad Faqirov, the first deputy chief of the GBAO customs directorate.
According to him, this measure is introduced in accordance with Tajik-Chinese agreement regulating functioning of the crossing.
The Tajik-China trade route, opened in 2004, 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.
This year, the crossing’s function has been extended for one more month and since May 1 2008, it has worked every day from May through November.
