Uzbekistan wants rail transport expanded with Afghanistan

KABUL (Pajhwok): Uzbekistan has shown interest in expanding transit trade with Afghanistan through increased railway transportation and decreasing applied tariff by 50 percent, according to a statement on Monday.

It was stated by Hikmatullah Rahmatov, deputy head of the Uzbekistan Railway Authority during his delegation’s meeting with the Head of the Afghanistan Railway Authority (ARA) Mullah Bakhat Rahman Sharafat, the ARA wrote on its Twitter handle.

“We are happy that Afghanistan has railway linkages with its good neighbor Uzbekistan,” said Sharafat during the meeting.

The visiting dignitary said that Uzbekistan was interested in playing an important role in mega connectivity projects such as the Trans-Afghan Railway project.

Hikmatullah Rahmatov said that Tashkent was interested in decreasing the applied railway tariff by 50 percent and increasing transportation through the railway to expand transit trade with Afghanistan.

The visiting delegation also pledged the creation of modern and equipped storage in the Naibabad station on Hairatan-Mazar-i-Sharif direction to help the export of Afghanistan’s fresh fruits and vegetables to Central Asian and European countries.

This comes that on March 29 head of the Russian Railway Authority during a meeting with Mullah Sharafat declared full support for the Herat-Boldak and Trans-Afghan Railway network projects.

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