Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan Approve Roadmap for Key Railway Line

Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbeksitan have approved a roadmap for the Mazar-e-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar railway line on Tuesday in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The Afghan delegation in the landmark event for signing of the roadmap was led by Foreign Minister Haneef Atmar.

In his tweet about the event Atmar said the project will “boost connectivity, contribute to increased trade, transit and economic cooperation and realize our shared vision to link Central and South Asia through Afghanistan.”

The project will also create thousands of job opportunities to Afghans and will help stimulate the country’s economic growth.

Costing $4.8 billion, the project forms a unified railway infrastructure of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries with the countries of South Asia.

The railway will enable access to the countries of the Persian Gulf through Pakistan’s Gwadar and Karachi ports.

The trans-Afghan railway project will reduce the time and costing of transporting goods along the North-South corridor by 30%, according to Daily Times of Pakistan.

“Thus, the delivery time of goods from the Russian border (Ozinki station) to Karachi will be 16-18 days, and from Termez to Karachi – 8-10 days, according to Uzbek officials. They are confident that the volume of traffic can grow to 10 million tons in the first years of operation,” adds the source.