DUSHANBE, November 7, 2014, Asia-Plus — On Friday November 7, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon met in Beijing with Zhang Zunan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of China Railway, according to the Tajik president’s official website.
The sides reportedly discussed issues related to construction of a rail link connecting Dushanbe, Vahdat and Yovon.
They discussed the possibility of accelerating work on construction of the Vahdat-Yovon railway, the source said.
Three railway tunnels with a total length of more than 3.7 kilometers and five railway bridges with a total length of 712 meters will be built along the Vahdat-Yovon railway.
The Export-Import bank of China (China Exim Bank) has provided a $60 million loan for carrying out these works and China Railway Construction 19TH Division is being engaged in constructing these facilities.
Construction of the Vahdat-Yovon railway is under way and it is expected to be finished September 2016.
The Vahdat-Yovon railway that is 46.3 kilometers in length is being built in two stages. The first phase of the project includes construction of 13 kilometers of railway from the railway station Ilyak in the Vahdat district to the railway station Gambuloq in the Roudaki district. The second phase includes construction of a 33.3-kilometer railway from the Gambuloq station to the railway station Yovon-2 that will connect the railways Dushanbe-Vahdat and Yovon-Qurghon Teppa.
China Exim Bank has reportedly provided a $72 million loan for implementation of this project.
We will recall that the present railway link joining the Tajik capital and Qurghon Teppa, which is 429 kilometers in length, runs across the territory of Uzbekistan and the Uzbek authorities have suspended rail traffic to the Tajik southern Khatlon province.
The Vahdat-Yovon railway will link the country”s central part with the southern province of Khatlon and will make it possible to shorten the distance by 152 kilometers.
