The Republic of Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has highlighted strategic “significance” of his “unique” ten initiatives in the recently concluded International conference entitled “Central Asia and South Asia: Regional interconnectedness: Challenges and Opportunities” which “mesmerized” all the regional leaders, international organizations and policy makers.
It “vividly” reflected “futuristic” policies of “New Uzbekistan” which desired to promote spirits of greater regional connectivity through the “creation of modern, efficient and safe transport and logistics infrastructures in Central Asia and South Asia”.
According to President Mirziyoyev the Termez-Mazar-i-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar railway has the “potential” to become main “architecture” of the greater regional connectivity between Central Asia and South Asia. In this connection, the proposed Trans-Regional Railway Project (TRRP) has already received “necessary” political patronage and financial support of all the main stakeholders in the region and beyond.
For the further strengthening of regional connectivity, the governments of Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan have signed a joint request letter seeking a $4.8 billion loan from international financial institutions for a mega railway project to connect Pakistan with Uzbekistan via Afghanistan and later to other Central Asian states.
President Mirziyoyev assured that the construction of TRRP will fully realized the transit potential of the Central Asia and South Asia region which provides “shortest route”, “economic viability” in terms of time and cheapest cost mechanism, transporting goods between south Asia and Europe through Central Asia and the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
In this connection, many global financial organizations like the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) have shown their keen interest to “contribute” in the mega project.
According to Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade (MIFT) 2020-2021 the World Bank has indicated a willingness to finance the fieldwork and to provide technical assistance in the design for the construction of a railway network between three regional countries Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Uzbekistan’s ministry declared that this railway project connecting Afghanistan with Pakistan will cost around US$ 4.8 to 5 billion. It has an annual “transit” potential of up to 20 million tons of cargo.
It estimates that the project will help improve regional trade and connectivity through Afghanistan to the Central Asia Republics. The $5 billion TRRP “Mazar-e-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar” project consists of 573-km long railway track, connecting Peshawar to Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif all the way to Uzbekistan. Pakistan would operate the routes from Peshawar to Torkham beyond which Afghanistan and Uzbekistan will operate it.
In this context, the signing ceremony was attended by Uzbekistan’s Minister for Transport Makhkamov Ilkham and senior Pakistan government officials. During the meeting, Imran Khan affirmed Pakistan’s eagerness “to establish closer ties with Central Asia in diverse sectors of trade, investments, energy, and people-to-people contacts. Prime Minister Khan upheld Pakistan’s strong commitment to deepen bilateral cooperation.
On his part, Uzbek minister highlighted Uzbekistan’s desire to improve bilateral trade and commercial ties and connectivity with Pakistan. He also discussed rail and road cooperation and explored region direct access to the seaports. Prime Minister Khan emphasized the significance of joint efforts to promote connectivity for regional development and offered Pakistan’s seaports for greater regional connectivity.
Special Assistant to the Railways Minister Ghulam Dastgir highlighted strategic importance of the said project. It would build on the already existing railway infrastructure in the three countries. It has multiplier socio-economic and geopolitical effects. It will further enhance transit trade between Pakistan and Central Asian region.
Pakistan Minister for Railways Azam Khan Swati showcased salient features of the said trilateral project connecting Pakistan Railways with Afghanistan and Uzbekistan and will include both passenger and cargo high-speed trains.
He termed the project a huge opportunity to boost trade flows and strengthening regional economy. It hopes that the said project will provide a new impetus to Pakistan Railways after the country’s most expensive $6.8 billion Mainline-1 (ML-1) project to upgrade 2,655km tracks under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The trilateral rail project opens up “a new window of opportunity for all the CIS.
Moreover, President Mirziyoyev showcased ‘far-reaching” impact of this mega railway project which will create a powerful platform for achieving “inclusive” economic development in Central Asia and South Asia. He termed it modern version of the famous ancient Northern trade route of Uttarapatha which connected the Indo-Gangetic Plain with Southern territories of the Eurasian Termez.
It seems that TRRP is also a natural sequence of the regional connectivity cherished by Pakistan and Uzbekistan. It will open Pakistani seaports on the Arabian Gulf to Uzbekistan and continue Afghanistan’s gradual integration into the Central Asian economic system. The signing of TRRP has been rightly dubbed as “event of the century” by the chairperson of the Uzbek Senate, Tanzila Narbaeva.
In this connection, Uzbekistan had already built a railway link of 60 km from its Termez city to Afghan city Mazar-e-Sharif. It was built to search for the corridors leading to sea ports.
The proposed TRRP crisscrosses the Hindu-Kush range which would make it one of the highest railroads in the world and its design will test the supply of materials.
Uzbekistan uses exclusively the Russian, 1520mm gauge, while Pakistan uses 1676mm gauge. In 2010, Afghanistan opted to build using the international standard, 1435mm, gauge. Hopefully, variations of railway gauge will be solved through harmonious consensus.
The trilateral project would include both high-speed passenger and cargo trains. It would connect Central and South Asia by the shortest route and would open seaports of Pakistan to the Central Asian and Eurasian railway systems to enhance trade flows and strengthen the regional economy. The project would be instrumental in creating tens of thousands of new jobs in Afghanistan contributing to peace and stability.
The implementation of this project would substantially bring down time and cost of transporting goods. According to different research studies and published reports (2020-2021) the “delivery” time of goods from the Russian border (Ozinki) to Karachi would be reduced to 6-18 days and from Termez to Karachi to 8-10 days only.
In addition to this railway cargo is also expected to reach 20 million tons per year. A cut in transportation cost is estimated to be from 30-35 percent which would further enhance prospects of regional connectivity and trade.
In this regard, the transportation cost of a container from Tashkent to Karachi from this TRRP could be around US$ 1400-1600 that is half the price of transporting it from Tashkent to Bandar Abbas i.e. US$ 2600-3000. Thus it is the most “viable” project which would “revolutionize” the concept of regional connectivity in the days to come.
It seems that besides having the shortest access to warm waters, the Kabul Corridor, together with the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan transport corridor would link together four economically strong Eurasian regions Europe, China, Russia and South Asia via Central Asia.
This TRRP would result in “fast track” trade and economic cooperation, early finalization of preferential transit and trade agreements, increased security and mutual collaboration in the fields of education, culture and tourism in the days to come. It has the potential to “stimulate” the economic growth of all the three countries and the region.
The TRRP provides access to the three Pakistani seaports of Karachi, Bin Qasim, and Gwadar and will dramatically increase the transit potential and cargo flow to Central Asia. It will revive the region’s historical role as a connecting link/hub between Europe and Asia through the shortest land route.
The policy makers in Tashkent have already termed the TRRP as the launch of a new ‘paradigm” for regional development in which Afghanistan will provide a connecting link between Central and South Asia for mutually beneficial interregional cooperation. In this regard, it is high time to recognize the new strategic opportunities and to take advantage of them by intensifying dialogue between all regional countries and external players.
The TRRP will hopefully create a unique opportunity for ensuring peace and stability in Afghanistan by stimulating growth and creating tens of thousands of new jobs necessary conditions for the development and exploitation of rich reserves of minerals copper, tin, zinc, iron ore, marble, granite, travertine, and others.
The TRRP will stimulate immense infrastructure development in the region i.e. construction of roadside infrastructure, creation of conditions for the development of rich mineral resources along the railway route will help in the creation of thousands of jobs.
President Mirziyoyev hopes that construction of TRRP would connect regional countries with China and other leading countries of the Asia-Pacific region. Moreover, the TRRP is fully in line with the goals of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Being prominent regional expert of Uzbekistan & CIS I fully endorse the “ten initiatives” of Uzbekistan’s President H.E. Shavkat Mirziyoyev in which Trans-Regional Railway Project (TRRP) would be ‘game’ and “fate” changer in the region. It will stimulate chances of regional connectivity. It is indeed a “cost-benefit” project which has numerous multiplier socio-economic, geopolitical and geostrategic benefits for the regional countries especially Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Hopefully after completion the TRRP will connect regional economies, trade & commerce power houses and industries and will definitely further foster chances of FDIs and joint ventures. Inclusion of private sectors of all the respective countries would be a “value-addition’. Innovative financial “derivatives” would further stipulate regional bond markets and their finances.
The proposed TRRP would promote regional “economic liberalization” which would be consequently used to lessen the global economic manipulations and financial marginalization. Easy, smooth and shortest route would provide ideal economic “accelerators” to revolutionize the economies of Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
To conclude modern economy “fosters and fastens’ through economic, trade and maritime corridors. It further strengthens certain economic comparative advantages which have “translating’, “transmitting” and “tremendous” befitting propositions and partnership.
Thus Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s ten initiatives has a ‘magnetic force” to pull all the regional countries, economic and communities out of their political fears and spheres of compromises to economic “gravitational” lunch pad to achieve skies of regional connectivity, immense socio-economic prosperity, eradication of poverty, generation of new jobs and last but not least, integrative mechanism of transformative systems of logistics and transportation.
So Trans-Regional Railway Project of Termez-Mazar-i-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar is indeed a platform of economic growth and greater regional connectivity.
