KABUL: Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan (TAT) railway project to enhance customs ties between countries. Linking Central Asia to Persian Gulf ports, epitomized Turkmenistan’s rising interest in building regionally and internationally significant transportation and communications projects.
TAT railway will be a game changer for both Afghanistan and Tajikistan, economically depressed and largely isolated from world markets due to their landlocked geography and lack of interstate roads. Tajikistan’s largely Soviet-era transportation infrastructure is mostly oriented northwards and heavily depends on Uzbekistan, which frequently restricts Tajik transit traffic. In Afghanistan, decades of war mean that much of its transportation infrastructure is either completely destroyed or in poor condition.
In 2011 Turkmenistan and Afghanistan signed a draft inter-governmental framework agreement on a project to construct a railway linking their countries.
The TAT railway had its genesis in March 2013 during a telephone conversation of Berdymukhammedov with Rahmon. Following up, on March 20, 2013 Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov invited Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Tajik president Emomali Rahmon to a trilateral meeting in Ashgabat, which resulted in the three presidents signing a Memorandum of Understanding between Turkmenistan, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Republic of Tajikistan on the construction of the “Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan” railway.
The MoU noted, “According to the unanimous opinion of the parties, the implementation of this ambitious project will contribute not only to strengthening the ties of friendship and fruitful cooperation between the three neighboring countries, but also in the formation of transport infrastructure at the regional and international level.” The Turkmen Dovlet Khabarlary (TDH) state news agency reported, “The implementation of this project will contribute to the diversification of transport corridors of Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, implementation of possibilities of cooperation in the field of transport, including in the context of initiatives of Turkmenistan for developing interregional relations, using the potential of the transport and communication network of the Central Asia, the Caspian and Black Sea regions.”
Not surprisingly, given the parlous state of the Tajik and Afghan economies, outside funding was critical to beginning the TAT project. The month after the MoU was signed Afghan Deputy Minister of Public Works Ahmad Shah stated that the TAT railway, with an estimated cost of $1.5-2 billion, would be underwritten by Turkmenistan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), with ADB allocating $350 million to Afghanistan for its 37-mile TAT section between Akina and Andho.
