A delegation from Uzbekistan is touring Europe this week, seeking investment in the Trans-Afghan Rail Corridor. Led by the President of Uzbekistan’s special representative for Afghanistan, Ambassador Ismatulla Irgashev, and including the Vice-Chair of Uzbek Railways, Akmal Kamalov, they have made an appeal for Europe and other western countries to seek direct foreign investment in the project. They called for a dialogue with the Taliban-led Afghan government in the project that will connect Central Asia and South Asia by building the railway from Uzbekistan to Pakistan through Afghanistan.
Also known as the “Kabul Corridor,” the rail route goes from Termez (at the Uzbek border, already a rail depot center) on to Mazar-i-Sharif in the northern Afghan Balkh Province, on to Kabul, and thence to Peshawar, Pakistan.
Speaking at a briefing in Brussels today (4 Nov.) Ambassador Irgashev addressed the need to deal with the “the complex and deteriorating” situation since the withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan. He called for a “critical and pragmatic” dialogue with the Taliban, a policy that his country has already been carrying out in its efforts to support Afghan people who are suffering hunger and cold.
Irgashev said that in his 30 years of dealing with Afghanistan, he has seen a real change in the Taliban. Nonetheless he said the Taliban must learn to share power and only through a dialogue will that change happen. According to the EU Reporter, he added that the international community has an obligation to bring about a lasting peace in Afghanistan.
Concerning the proposed railway, he said that Afghans are receiving training at a facility in Uzbekistan, and some of those Afghan trainees are women which, he said, is a sign of greater cooperation than has been seen from previous governments in Kabul.
Vice-Chair of Uzbek Railways Akmal Kamalov briefed the meeting on the progress made so far for the project, which would cost an estimated $5.96 billion and take five years to build. Both the Uzbek and Pakistani governments jointly carried out a survey expedition, in July and August, on part of the route, which would include five tunnels. The route would proceed diagonally across Afghanistan for 573 km, proceeding from the Afghan rail head at Mazar-i-Sharif, which is 75 kilometers south of the Uzbek border.
Kamalov said security is not an issue, pointing to the fact that lorries were safely making the journey between Mazar-i-Sharif and Peshawar, with truck shipments having increased from 28,000 tons to 500,000 tons in ten months.
The delegation also held a networking session in the Netherlands Nov. 3, where they gave a similar briefing.
The European trip was preceded by a meeting in Tashkent on 28 October between Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, and Charles Michel, President of the European Council, where the Uzbek President made a plea for Foreign Direct Investment into the railway and corridor project. According to a statement by the EU following the meeting, “The Uzbek side expressed its readiness to create the necessary conditions for attracting FDIs, including EU companies.”
According to EIR, the Trans-Afghan Rail Corridor route cuts across three of the five main river basins in the nation, making it a potential boon for upgrading the agriculture productivity in the nation, bringing in farm inputs, hauling out agriculture products, and laying the basis for food self-sufficiency instead of today’s mass shortages and hunger. The route spans an area where over 40 percent of the Afghan population lives. Uzbekistan and Afghanistan together have the most population in all of Central Asia, by far.
The engineering challenge of the project is to cross the Hindu Kush, which at the peak part of the Kabul Corridor, would be 3,500 meters. This makes the railway one of the world’s highest, but not at all an impossible task.
