Daily Times

The government of Pakistan and Republic of Uzbekistan in a meeting agreed on the formation of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for expediting the Mazar-e-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar Rail project.

This was decided during a meeting of a delegation led by Uzbek Deputy Prime Minister for Investment and Foreign Trade, Mr.Sardor Umurzakov with Federal Minister for Railways, Muhammad Azam Khan Swati, Minister for Planning Asad Umar, Minister for Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam and Advisor to the Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razaq Dawood.

The stakeholders discussed the progress on the Mazar-e-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar Rail project (Trans Afghan Railways).

All stakeholders on behalf of the government of Pakistan and Republic of Uzbekistan present during the meeting agreed on the formation of a SPV for further expediting the project.

The Uzbek delegation included the Uzbek Minister of Transport, Minister of Agriculture, First Deputy Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador of Uzbekistan to Pakistan.

The Mazar-e-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar rail link is one of the designated rail corridors defined and planned under the CAREC Railways Strategy. This new Railway line will provide central Asia access to the Pakistani seaports of Karachi, Bin Qasim and Gwadar by connecting the central Asian and Eurasian railway systems. The major infrastructure development project will provide a lifeline support for the reconstruction of Afghanistan and will help towards reducing the humanitarian crises building up in Afghanistan.

The project was initially discussed during the visit of Uzbekistan Deputy PM Sardor Umur Zakov to Pakistan on September 10, 2020. The Head of the States of Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan signed a joint appeal letter to the World Bank for financing the project on 27th December, 2020.

Uzbekistan hosted the First trilateral Joint Working Group on February 1-3, 2021 at Tashkent where a Roadmap was agreed and signed by three countries Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.

Pakistan Railways is already conducting a feasibility study of a new Rail link from Peshawar to Jalalabad which will be completed shortly. It has been agreed by the three countries that the Pakistan side will share the findings of the feasibility study with Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.