All Afghanistan articles
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NewsSome trains still running amid Taliban takeover
AFGHANISTAN: Newly-appointed head of the Ministry of Public Works Rumi Bakht-ur-Rehman Sharafat held an initial meeting with ministry staff and the Afghanistan Railway Authority on August 21 following the Taliban’s takeover of the country. The acting minister said the Taliban leadership was committed to the rehabilitation ...
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Chinese freight arrives in Hairatan
AFGHANISTAN: The first shipment of Chinese commercial and transit goods to arrive in the current solar year was delivered to the commercial port of Hairatan on July 11, having been moved by rail from Urumqi via Uzbekistan. According to the Ministry of Commerce, the train organised by ...
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Railway opening forges ‘bonds of friendship’ between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan
AFGHANISTAN: ‘Those who thought that building a network of railways in Afghanistan was impossible need to reconsider their perspective’, said President Ashraf Ghani during the inauguration of the line from Aqina on the Turkmen border to the northern town of Andkhoy on January 14. ...
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Two presidents inaugurate Afghanistan – Iran railway
AFGHANISTAN: The country’s first standard gauge railway, which links Herat province with Khaf in eastern Iran, was formally inaugurated with a ceremony on December 10. Afghanistan’s President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani participated by video conference because of the coronavirus ...
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First Iran to Afghanistan freight train
AFGHANISTAN: A trial freight train delivered more than 400 tonnes of cement from Iran to Rosnak in Herat province on December 2, ahead of the ceremonial inauguration of the newly completed railway which is scheduled for this month. A passenger train also carried Iranian railway officials to ...
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Central Asia transport strategy for 2030
ASIA: The Central Asia Regional Economic Co-operation programme has published its Transport Strategy 2030, building on lessons learned from the Transport & Trade Facilitation Strategy 2020. According to CAREC, 1 800 km of railway was built in the period covered by that strategy. ...
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Afghans visit high speed rail training centre
AFGHANISTAN: Staff from the Ministry of Transport recently travelled to China to be trained in railway management, signalling and operations. This included a visit to a high speed rail training centre. The Afghanistan Railway Authority said the engineers had acquired a wealth ...
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Herat province railway construction contract signed
AFGHANISTAN: A contract for the design and construction of the first phase of the fourth section of the railway being built to link Khaf in Iran with Herat province has been signed by the Afghanistan Railway Authority and Kazak company Integra Construction. The ...
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Afghanistan – China rail freight service sets off
Afghanistan AFGHANISTAN: An inaugural service carrying freight for export to China by rail left Hairatan in northern Afghanistan on September 5, carrying 1 100 tonnes of talc in 41 containers. The train crossed the Soviet-built road-rail Friendship Bridge over the Amu Darya into Uzbekistan. The containers ...
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Afghanistan approves fourth section of Khaf – Herat railway
AFGHANISTAN: Design and construction of the 43 km first phase of the fourth section of the railway being built from Iran to Herat was approved by the National Procurement Commission at its meeting on February 18. The 1 435 mm gauge line is being built in four sections. Work has ...
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ADB grant to help CAREC countries move from landlocked to land-linked
ASIA: The Asian Development Bank has awarded a US$2m regional technical assistance grant to support the development of railway strategies and institutional capabilities in the Central Asia Regional Economic Co-operation countries. CAREC comprises Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and six multilateral institutions. ...
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Afghan railway terminal expansion MoU signed
AFGHANISTAN: A memorandum of understanding for the development of the freight terminal at Aqina on the Afghan-Turkmenistan border, including the construction of 10 track-km of main line and sidings, was signed by the Afghanistan Railway Authority and Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Railways in Ashgabat on November 2. The MoU has six ...
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Tajikistan – Afghanistan railway construction could start this year
ASIA: Design work has been completed and Tajikistan could begin construction of a cross-border rail link to Afghanistan by end of 2018, the Afghanistan Railway Authority said on July 16. An ARA team led by Chief Executive Mohammad Yamma Shams recently travelled to Tajikistan to discuss the project, and technical ...
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Uzbekistan backs Afghan rail proposal
AFGHANISTAN: Uzbekistan has pledged to provide US$500m to part-fund the construction of a 657 km railway from Mazar-i-Sharif to Herat, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Finance said following an international conference on Afghanistan held in Toshkent on March 26-27. The proposed line would be an extension of the existing 75 km route ...
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Turkmenistan – Afghanistan railway modernised
ASIA: A ceremony to mark the completion of work to upgrade the 13 km rail link between Serhetabat in southern Turkmenistan and Towraghondi in northern Afghanistan took place on February 23. This formed part of a pair of ceremonies which were held in Turkmenistan and Afghanistan to mark the completion ...
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Afghanistan and Turkmenistan open Lapis Lazuli railway
ASIA: A line running 85 km from Atamyrat in Turkmenistan to the Ymamnazar border crossing point and 3 km onwards to Afghanistan’s border facilities at Akina was officially opened by Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani who ceremonially tightened a golden bolt on November 28. The 1 ...
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Chinese freight train reaches Hairatan
AFGHANISTAN: The first through freight train from China was formally welcomed into the northern rail port at Hairatan on September 7, although it was reported to have arrived a day earlier following a 3 000 km transit taking 14 days. With the locomotive carrying a headboard proclaiming Central Asia Train: ...
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Herat railway feasibility study contract signed
AFGHANISTAN: The Ministry of Public Works has awarded Canadian consultancy Canarail a contract to undertake a technical feasibility study for a proposed railway which would run from the northwestern city of Herat to the railfreight terminal at Towraghondi on the border with Turkmenistan. The contract was signed on April ...
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Afghan railway tendering begins
AFGHANISTAN: The Afghanistan Railway Authority has invited expressions of interest in three performance-based contracts to operate, maintain and manage the 75 km railway from Hairatan on the Uzbek border to a freight terminal near Mazar-i-Sharif. Responses from ‘experienced, high calibre and competent national and international’ companies should be submitted to ...
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Iran shares railway expertise with Afghanistan
AFGHANISTAN: Iranian Islamic Republic Railways has signed a memorandum of understanding to provide the Afghanistan Railway Authority with training to support its plans for railway development and expansion. RAI said Iran would send technical experts to advise on railway organisation, maintenance and construction, to help accelerate the development of the ...
