Source: AFP
At the edge of Afghanistan’s border with Uzbekistan, where the railway comes to an abrupt halt, crowds of young men carry sacks of wheat or flour from freight trains to trucks.
Every day, 3,500 tons of flour and 1,500 tons of wheat are unloaded by hand in the border town of Khairatan in northern Afghanistan onto trucks that brave mountain passes and war-torn roads to transport goods across the country.
Renovation work is underway to connect the degraded route to Mazar-i-Sharif, the largest city in the north, and according to Taliban authorities, it will be operational from June.
Just 75 kilometers (47 miles) long, it is an important part of the Taliban government’s ambitions to revive several dormant railway projects.
The long-awaited Trans-Afghan Railway aims to eventually connect Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan with 700 kilometers of track, with the support of the three countries that have formed a working group.
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“People have been talking about the Trans-Afghan Railway for more than 100 years,” said Andrew Grantham, news editor of UK-based Railway Gazette International, a media outlet dedicated to covering rail developments.
As well as food and logs from Russia, fuel and other materials arrive in Khairatan from Central Asian republics and China, with the Taliban government aspiring to see these goods cross Afghanistan by rail under their rule.
“Trans-Afghan will become the economic corridor between Central Asia and South Asia,” said Mohammad Shafiq Mahmood, head of the Balkh Railway Authority in Mazar-i-Sharif.
It is one of two rail projects being pursued by Taliban authorities in an effort to better connect Afghanistan — a country wracked by decades of war and poverty that has never built its own railways.
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A second line of more than 200 kilometers at the other end of the country is intended to connect the city of Herat with Iran’s western neighbor, giving Afghanistan access to the sea, Turkey and Europe.
It is a project that has been planned for about 15 years, well before the Taliban return to power in 2021.
Rail transport is the fastest and cheapest means of transporting goods, with passenger trains not on the table at this stage in Afghanistan.
Billions of dollars
But building a line to Pakistan will take time, said Abdulsami Durrani, a spokesman for the national railways in Kabul.
Source: AFP
“According to our current estimates, once the actual work on this project begins, the construction phase will take three to five years,” he told AFP.
He added that preliminary figures suggested a price tag of $4-5 billion, although he remained unclear on the sources of funding.
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“We are in discussions with various countries and financial institutions,” he said.
Foreign capital has withered since the Taliban returned to power, their government not officially recognized by any country.
“Building a railway on this scale in five years is not going to happen,” Grantham said.
“It is very ambitious,” he told AFP, stressing that Kabul will need foreign financial and technical assistance.
Western companies probably won’t be interested because of “safety and security issues and the political environment,” he added.
But Central Asian countries such as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, as well as Russia, are already cooperating with Afghanistan.
Other countries, such as Iran, could also provide support.
Access to the sea
“The works seem to be happening,” Grantham said, noting that the line connecting Herat to Iran “can be up and running quite quickly.”
“Assuming Iran is supportive, this will be a viable project,” he said.
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Last Sunday, work began on the final phase of this line.
The 47-kilometer section will be built in two years at a cost of $53 million, with Russian and Turkish partners, Durrani said.
This railway will give landlocked Afghanistan access to the sea and connect it to international trade routes and will “significantly affect Afghanistan’s economy,” he added.
“The more kilometers of railway lines are developed in the country, the more our trade with other countries will increase.”
In addition to funding, there are still thorny technical issues to be resolved, notably the orbit range.
Source: AFP
Iran uses European gauge standards, but railways originating from the former Soviet republics have a different gauge and Pakistan’s railways have a third.
“You can have hours of fun” determining which of the three counters Afghanistan should use, Grantham said.
Source: AFP