Railway project to be expedited

Pakistan and Uzbekistan have agreed to expedite the development of Mazar-e-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar railway project (also called trans-Afghan railway scheme) by setting up a special purpose vehicle (SPV).

In a meeting on Tuesday, Pakistani officials and an Uzbekistan delegation reviewed progress on the scheme.

The trans-Afghan railway scheme is one of the rail corridors defined and planned under the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Railway Strategy.

The Uzbek delegation included minister of transport, minister of agriculture, first deputy minister of investment and foreign trade, deputy minister of foreign affairs and ambassador of Uzbekistan.

The new railway line will connect Central Asian countries with the seaports in Karachi, Bin Qasim and Gwadar by linking the Central Asian and Eurasian railway systems.

The large infrastructure project will provide lifeline support for the reconstruction of Afghanistan and will help address the humanitarian crisis there.

The project was initially discussed during the visit of Uzbekistan Deputy Prime Minister Sardor Umurzakov to Pakistan on September 10, 2020.

Heads of states of Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan signed a joint appeal letter written to the World Bank for financing the project on December 27, 2020.

Uzbekistan hosted the first trilateral joint working group meeting from February 1-3, 2021 at Tashkent where a roadmap was developed and signed by the three countries.

Pakistan Railways is already conducting a feasibility study on the rail link between Peshawar and Jalalabad, which would be completed soon. The three countries have agreed that Pakistan will share findings of the feasibility study with Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.

After the new government took power in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan discussed the scheme with the new leadership. All nations decided to go ahead with the project activities.

In a meeting held in Tashkent on December 7, 2021, Uzbekistan and Pakistan agreed to carefully study and conduct visual expeditions of the routes inside Afghanistan.

The Uzbek side shared the draft of a detailed action plan for the implementation of first stage of the trans-Afghan railway line.

Federal Minister for Railways Azam Khan Swati met with Uzbek Minister of Transport Makhkamov Ilkhom Rustamovich on the sidelines of an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting on December 19, 2021.

Both sides discussed the implementation of trilateral understanding for the construction of trans-Afghan railway line between Mazar-e-Sharif, Kabul, Jalalabad, Torkham and Peshawar.

A delegation of Pakistan visited Tashkent and met with representatives of the Ministry of Transport on February 15, 2022 to further deliberate on steps for implementation of the project.

During discussion, local officials expressed their readiness to begin field expeditions by March 15, 2022.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 23^rd, 2022.

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