In a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, the Minister of Transport Azim Ibrohim said on July 24 that rehabilitation of the road from Qalai Khumb, the administrative center of the Darvoz district in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) to the border of GBAO’s Rushan district must be completed in the first months of 2025.
“There was an order to complete rehabilitation of this section of the Dushanbe-Kulob-Khorog-Kulma Pass highway until the end of this year. However, due to the need for high-quality construction of two tunnels and five galleries, the implementation may take several months. Therefore, the rehabilitation of this section of the highway is expected to be completed in the first months of the next year,” the minister said.
According to him, one of the tunnels will be 1.8 kilometers in length and another one will be 3.4 kilometers in length.
“It is important that the work is done efficiently, therefore, the completion of the project requires additional time,” Mr. Ibrohim noted.
At the same time, he noted that the work on rehabilitation of the road is progressing.
Asked about the rehabilitation of the road from Rushan to GBAO’s capital, Khorog, the minister said, “The amount of funding the rehabilitation of the road from Rushan district to Khorog (more precisely 70 km east of Khorog towards the Murgab district) is significant.”
“Depending on whether it is grant or loan financing, the amount may vary. Assuming that the cost of rehabilitation of one kilometers of this road is US$1 million dollars, the total amount will be approximately $235 million. The Ministry of Transport is actively working to attract the necessary funding and hopes for the successful completion of the projects that will significantly improve the transport infrastructure of the region,” the minister added.
Recall, an official ceremony of the beginning of rehabilitation of the road from Qalai Khumb to Vanj district (up to Rushan district’s border) took place on June 23, 2022.
Chinese company, China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), is engaged in rehabilitation of this section of the Dushanbe-Khorog highway.
Rehabilitation of the Qalai Khumb-Vanj road includes construction of two tunnels with a total length of 5.2 kilometers, a 490-meter gallery and 15 bridges with a total length of 634 meters that will reduce the length of the road to 90 kilometers.
The Dushanbe – Khorog – Kulma Pass highway is the only overland route between Tajikistan and China.
The Dushanbe-Kulob-Khorog-Kulma-Karokurum highway may reference Asian Highway 66 (AH66) as well as parts of the famous Pamir Highway. AH66 runs from Dushanbe to Xinjiang, crossing the border at Kulma Pass and connecting to the Karakoram highway that runs north-south from China into Pakistan.
It is to be noted that the Dushanbe-Khorog highway was built in 1940 in a record three and a half months. Until 1940, it was possible to get from Khorog to Dushanbe only after driving 732 kilometers to Osh (Kyrgyzstan) by carriage road, and then 1551 kilometers by rail.
