KHOROG, August 18, 2010, Asia-Plus — The Kulma crossing on the Tajik-Chinese border in Murgab district now again operates in a customary regime, though traffic current has decreased, the GBAO customs service chief Mehrafzoun Mehrafzounov told Asia-Plus Wednesday afternoon.
“However, movement along the Kulma-Karasu-Kashgar highway, some parts of which have been damaged by recent floods and mudflows, is still quite dangerous,” Mehrafzounov added.
As it had been reported earlier, traffic via the Kulma crossing was temporarily suspended last week because floods and mudflows damaged in several parts the Kulma-Karasu-Kashgar highway on Chinese territory.
We will recall that since May 1, 2008, the Kulma crossing has operated every day, except weekends, from May though November.
Opened in 2004, the Tajik-China trade route 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.
