Feasibility study of trans-Afghan railway to be ready in early 2026: Russian deputy PM

A feasibility study of the trans-Afghan railway is due to be ready early next year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk said at the 16th international economic forum Russia – Islamic World: KazanForum 2025.

“Russian and Uzbek railway specialists are drafting the feasibility study of the trans-Afghan railway construction project together. We are expecting the project feasibility study to be ready in early 2026 so that decisions on its implementation could be made,” Overchuk said, Interfax reported.

The trans-Afghan transport corridor will connect to the European Union, Russia, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Southeast Asia. Uzbekistan said in 2023 it had reached an agreement with a number of countries to implement the project, key participants in which, besides Uzbekistan, would be Afghanistan and Pakistan. A preliminary agreement on Russia’s participation in the project was reached in early April 2024, during Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s visit to Moscow.

Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan signed an agreement in February 2021 to construct a 573-kilometer railway line through Afghanistan, connecting landlocked Central Asia to Pakistan seaports.

The Uzbek Transport Ministry said earlier it would take at least five years to build the trans-Afghan railway, the tentative cost of which might reach $4.8 billion.

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov told Interfax in April that roughly 8 million to 15 million tonnes of Russian cargo might be annually transported by the prospective trans-Afghan railway.