DUSHANBE, July 20, 2011, Asia-Plus — Over the first six months of this year, Tajik Railways has shipped more than 4.7 million tons of cargo, which is 216,000 tons more than in the same period last year, Amonullo Hukumov, head of Tajik state rail company, Rohi Ohani Tojikiston (Tajik Railways), announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on July 20.
“In the meantime, transit shipments have fallen 23.6 percent over the report period,” said Hukumov, “1.9 million tons of transit cargo have been shipped via Tajik territory in January-June this year, which is 605,000 tons fewer than in the same period of 2010.”
According to him, decline in transit shipment has resulted from decrease in shipment of Uzbek commercial cargo via the territory of Tajikistan.
“This year, Uzbekistan plans to reduce cargo shipments via our territory by 2 million tons against last year,” Hukumov noted.
“In January-June this year, Tajik Railways has carried more than 270,000 passengers, which is 11,200 passengers fewer than in the same period last year,” the Tajik state rail company top manager said.
At present Tajik Railways offers three routes to the Russian Federation (Dushanbe-Moscow, Kulob-Moscow, and Khujand-Saratov) and four domestic routes (Dushanbe-Konibodom, Qurghon Teppa-Konibodom, Dushanbe-Pakhtaobod and Qurghon Teppa-Kulob). It is to be noted that the Dushanbe-Konibodom and Qurghon Teppa-Konibodom routes are temporarily suspended due to low passenger traffic.
Tajikistan’s rolling-stock now includes 1,929 cargo cars, 424 passenger carriages and 55 diesel locomotives.
The total length of rails in Tajikistan is 950 kilometers; of that, 680 kilometers are the main railways. At present there are 33 railway stations in the republic.
