Afghanistan-Uzbekistan ink new deal to maintain Hairatan-Mazar railway line

An Afghan government delegation has signed a new two-year contract with Uzbekistan for the maintenance of the Hairatan-Mazar-e-Sharif railway line.

This comes after Uzbekistan suspended operations early this month for 10 days.

The new contract for the maintenance of the railway line was signed during the Afghan delegation’s visit to Uzbekistan, officials confirmed.

Operations were suspended on February 1, which caused major problems for traders. However, operations resumed on Friday and there has been a steady increase in the volume of goods being transported on the line.

“The road was closed and people were facing many problems. We now see that 100 to 150 wagons arrive daily, and the problem seems to have been solved,” said Abdullah Abdali, a representative of the Prime Minister’s office.

Late last year, Afghanistan signed a contract for the maintenance and management of the line with a Kazakh company but the deal fell through and instead a new agreement was signed with Uzbekistan.

Now however, the contract has been signed with an Uzbek company and is valid for two years.

Bakht-ur-Rahman Sharaft, the General Director of Afghanistan Railway Authority (ARA) said: “They (Uzbeks) did not want those who we had an agreement with to be in the Hairatan port at the same time as Uzbekistan. We realized that they cannot manage and coordinate among themselves. We had to give the contract back to the brother country of Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan also gave a discount.”

Meanwhile, an Uzbekistan official said that they will support Afghanistan in its efforts to extend the line to Pakistan.

“As a result of our talks with the Afghan delegation, we agreed to cooperate with the Afghan government for the extension of the railway line to Pakistan,” Jamshed Baba Qul said.