DUSHANBE, January 26, 2015, Asia-Plus — Tajik Transport Minister Khairullo Asozoda has noted that Ashgabat is still in no hurry to endorse the route for the Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Turkmenistan (TAT) regional railway offered by Tajikistan.
Speaking at a news conference in Dushanbe, Asozoda said on January 26 that the document on the TAT railway route has already been approved by the Afghan side but Turkmenistan has no signed it so far.
The minister stressed the Asian Development Bank (ADB) had provided a $9 million grant for conducting feasibility study that should be completed this year.
We will recall that ex-head of Tajik Railways (Tajik state railway company), Amonullo Hukumatullo, told journalists in Dushanbe in late January last year that Tajikistan and Afghanistan have agreed on the routing of the Afghan segment of the planned Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan railway.
“The Tajik side has proposed the route from Kelif (Turkmenistan) to the Khoshadi station in the Shahritous district of Tajikistan’s Khatlon province and Afghanistan has accepted this proposal,” Hukumatullo told journalists on January 29, noting that Afghanistan had initially proposed the route from Kelif to Sherkhan Bandar that would be longer and costlier for Tajik shippers.
On January 30, 2014, Turkmen Foreign Ministry released a statement, which noted that “in accordance with international norms, multilateral projects are coordinated by all participating parties on the basis of mutual respect and equality. The statement of Tajik official about coordination of the segment of the railway reaching the Turkmen-Afghan border without participation of Turkmenistan is tendentious and absolutely unacceptable to the Turkmen side.”
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) for construction of the rail link connecting the three countries was signed during a trilateral meeting of the presidents of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan that took place in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat on March 20, 2013.
The 400-kilometer railroad is expected to connect the Afghan town of Akina-Andkhoy to Atamurat-Ymamnazar in Turkmenistan and Panj in Tajikistan. Turkmen workers are also to build the Afghan section of the railway.
The presidents of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan officially inaugurated the construction of the railway connecting the three nations on June 5, 2013. Presidents Hamid Karzai, Emomali Rahmon and Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov participated in the ceremony that took place in Turkmenistan”s northeastern province of Lebap. They buried a time capsule with a message to future generations under the first section of the railway line near the town of Atamyrat.
