DUSHANBE, July 16, Asia-Plus — All international rail routes from and to Tajikistan are conducted through Uzbekistan.
Narzikhon Zaripov, the deputy head of Tajikistan’s Railways, speaking to journalists in Dushanbe on July 16 said, “Practically all trains (94 percent) arrive in Tajikistan with delay and it is Uzbekistan to blame for this.”
According to him, Uzbek authorities carry out long unauthorized inspections and therefore trains arrive in the destination stations with considerable delay.
“We raised this issue at the meeting of the Central Asian council for management of railways in Astana, Kazakhstan,” said Zaripov, “During the meeting, it was decided to impose penalty sanctions for each minute of delays. At present foreign ministries of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are negotiating over this issue.”
As far as opening of new rail routes from Tajikistan to other countries is concerned, the railway official said Tajik Railways is technically prepared to conduct such routes. “However, it depends, first of all, on passenger traffic in both directions,” he said. The railway official, for example, claimed that routes from Dushanbe to the Russian cities of Novosibirsk and Chelyabinks passenger transportation has become unprofitable.
The route is considered to be profitable only if it is repaid not less than 60%-70% in both directions,” said Zaripov, “Thus, the passenger traffic from Dushanbe to Chelyabinsk and Novosibirsk is quite high, while from those cities to Dushanbe it is low, especially now.”
It is to be noted that rates on the rail routes to Russia are “sliding” and they change depending on the passenger traffic volume, which seasonally decrease or increase in connection with labor migration. Tajik labor migrants staying in the Russian Federation usually return home in the autumn, and therefore the demand for tickets on the routes from Russian cities to Dushanbe increases during this season.
