New Afghanistan railway to boost cargo movement

In a significant boost to cargo movement in Afghanistan, the country's first railway in almost a century is due to be completed before the year's end, officials said on Tuesday.

The $170 million (Dh624.4m) project, the bulk of which is being funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), will see a 75km stretch of single track linking Afghanistan's main city in the north, Mazar-e-Sharif, to Uzbekistan.

The railway, which only broke ground in late 2009, is due to be completed later this year and will greatly ease the flow of goods from the Uzbek border, which currently serves as a gateway for nearly half Afghanistan's imports, the ADB said.

"This is rather exceptional, usually this kind of project implementation takes three to four years, so this is very fast and very expeditious," ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda told reporters during a visit to the Afghan capital yesterday.

While acknowledging the current stretch of railway may be modest, the ADB says the plan is to eventually extend the connection south-west to the city of Herat and south to Kandahar city, linking the network to Iran and Pakistan.

A separate Iranian-funded line is being built from Herat to the Iran border, which will eventually link Central Asia to the Gulf, although that project has been met with delays. "This is just the beginning of railroad construction in this country," said Kuroda. "Afghanistan can become a regional hub for freight investment and various economic activities in the region."

The new rail link would speed up the transport of supplies to international forces.

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