On February 23, 2018 commissioning of the Serhetabat–Torghundi railway took place as one of events dedicated to the ground-breaking ceremony of the new section of the TAPI pipeline and laying of electric power and fiber-optic lines along the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan route.
The celebration was attended by President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and Minister of State for External Affairs of the Republic of India, Mobashar Jawed Akbar, who have recently arrived in our country.
The first train started off today from Turkmenistan’s border-area station of Serhetabat towards the Herat province of neighboring Afghanistan. The lists of freights that will be transported along the new railway include oil products, food and industrial goods, construction materials made in Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan entirely assumed the construction of the new Turkmenistan–Afghanistan railway line, as part of comprehensive help and support to the people of Afghanistan. These issues were discussed at the 7th Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan that took place in Ashgabat in mid-November 2017 where agreements, important for the region as a whole, were reached. By the end of that very month the Turkmen railway workers began the construction of the steel line towards the town of Torghundi that has been commissioned today.
With Afghanistan’s involvement in the projects for establishing the extensive transport infrastructure, the country will have a unique opportunity to use its geographical dividends as a transport and transit hub on the Eurasian continent.
