DUSHANBE August 8, 2014, Asia-Plus — An official source at Tajik Railways (Tajik state railway company) says Uzbek state railway company, O’zbekiston Temir Yo’llari, is ready to accept an offer of Tajik colleagues and to cut tariffs for transit transportation.
“At the beginning of this year, Tajikistan unilaterally cut tariffs for transit transportation of some commodities from and to Uzbekistan by 30-50 percent and we have applied to our Uzbek colleagues to consider the issue of cutting traffic for transit transportation from and to Tajikistan,” Anvar Latipov, an aide to the head of Tajik Railways, told Asia-plus in an interview.
Meanwhile, Utkur Astanov, an official with the Uzbek national rail carrier, has confirmed in his interview with Russian newspaper
Gudok
(Russian Railways’ press organ) that they received proposals from Tajik railway company and they were currently considering them.
According to him, the proposals concern not only tariffs but also routes “A decision has been made on shipping transit cargo from and to Tajikistan by new line through Uzbek territory,” said Astanov. “As far as the issue of cutting tariffs is concerned, we have not yet made a final decision on this issue.”
We will recall that in a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, deputy head of Tajik Railways, Usmon Qalandarov, noted on July 22 that Tajikistan-bound trains now do not face any problems while passing through Uzbek territory.
According to him, the incumbent management of Tajik Railways does not have any problems with Uzbek authorities and Tajik train now pass through Uzbek territory without difficulty.
