Railway Authority sees marked increase in rail cargo volume over past year

Afghanistan Railway Authority officials said on Monday at a press conference that during the year 1401, 4.67 million metric tons of goods were transferred by rail into the country.

“During the year 1401, a total of 4,673,929 metric tons of transfers were made through the Hairatan, Aqena and Torghondi ports which is a 36 percent increase compared to last year,” said Mullah Bakhtur Rahman Sharaf, head of the railway authority.

According to Sharaf, a total of 3.1 billion afghanis in revenue has been collected through the management of railways coming into the country.

Officials said that during the year 1401, a total of 12,492 metric tons of exports, 253,603 metric tons of transit and 4,407,834 metric tons of imports were handled by the country’s ports, most of which were dry and fresh fruits, food items, and minerals.

Sharaf said that during the last solar year, visits have been made to the countries of Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Iran in order to strengthen the level of regional cooperation, create an economic corridor and start the preliminary stages of implementing the Trans-Afghan railway project.

ARA officials said the contract for services and transfers at Hairatan – Mazar-e-Sharif port, which was previously signed with the Uzbek Sogdiana Trans Company at a total cost of about $32 million dollars, has been renewed but at a vast reduction. Fees are now $3.7 million dollars.

Officials say that during the last year, necessary coordination has been provided to technical teams from Uzbekistan and Pakistan, and as a result of the initial survey of the Trans Afghanistan route, work will soon start. Once complete, this will connect the countries of Central Asia with Afghanistan through to South Asia.

According to the officials, the restoration of parts of the Khaf-Herat Railway Project, the completion of work on the Aqina-Andkhoy railway line and its handover by Turkmenistan to the IEA government, training of 39 railway authority employees by Iran and Turkmenistan and obtaining scholarships from neighboring countries are other achievements in the past solar year.

According to the officials, in order to provide better and reliable services, speed up the process of transfers and collect revenues in a transparent manner, continuous efforts have been started to digitize the systems.