Uzbekistan will open railway transportation to Afghanistan after signing a new contract

The Galaba-Khairaton railway line to Afghanistan will be opened after the signing of an agreement between the Sogdiana Trans company and the administration of the Afghan railway, Turanews.kz reports citing the press service of the Uzbekistan Railways.

Since February 1, Uzbekistan Railways has suspended transportation to Afghanistan at the Hairaton-Mazar-i-Sharif section. The reason was called “failure by the Afghan side of the agreed technical work.”

According to the carrier company, the leadership of the Afghan Railway “in a new way” and “incorrectly” interprets the terms of the agreement for servicing the section of the Hairatan-Mazar-i-Sharif railway. Recall that in December 2022, the Afghan publication TOLOnews reported that the Kazakh company Mansour Fatih received a contract to service the Hairatan-Mazar-i-Sharif railway section, but Uzbekistan later denied this information, saying that negotiations were still underway.

“It should be noted that there is no explanation was given about the impossibility on the part of Afghanistan to carry out technical work at the Hairaton station within the time frame set by it and also the information was disseminated that the administration of the Afghan Railways signed an agreement with the Mansour Fatih company to organize the unloading and return of the wagons delivered to the Hairatan station. Unfortunately, this organization did not have time to organize work at the Hairaton station within the agreed period until January 31, ”the message says.

In addition, according to Uzbekistan Railways, Sogdiana Trans holds meetings with entrepreneurs and helps them organize the transportation of goods by temporary vehicles to support them, however, “there is information that a neighboring country recommends entrepreneurs not to transport goods by road.”

According to the company, “at the request of the leadership of the Afghan Railways” at the beginning of next week in Termez it is planned to sign a new contract between Sogdiana Trans and the administration of the Afghan Railway Administration to organize the transportation of goods by rail to Afghanistan, the delivery of goods to the Hairatan station and their export .