DUSHANBE, July 27, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Work on conducting feasibility study for construction of Tajik part of international railway link connecting Kashgar (China) and Herat (Afghanistan) will start in the near future, Minister of Transport and Communications Olim Boboyev announced at a news conference in Dushanbe  today.

According to him, the country’s parliament will pass an appropriate resolution on this subject and specialists will start the feasibility study for construction of the railroad Nizhny Panj-Kyrgyz Border.  This railroad will be some 392 kilometers in length and the cost of the feasibility study is one million U.S. dollars, the minister said.

“The government is currently considering two options of financing for this project: it will be funded due foreign loans or the project will be implemented on the basis of barter deal (financing of the railroad construction in exchange for development of natural resources in Tajikistan),” Boboyev noted.

He said a total length of the railroad from Kashgar to Herat would be 1,972 kilometers and the Chinese side has completed feasibility study of the railroad from Kashgar through Kyrgyz territory to Tajik border.  Feasibility study for construction of the railway from Nizhny Panj to Herat in Afghanistan will be completed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in the near future,” Boboyev said, noting that the Nizhny Panj-Herat railroad will be 1,105 kilometers in length.  This railroad is planned to be connected with Iran’s railways in the future, he added.

The minister stressed that the Kashgar-Herat railroad construction project included three branch lines.  “Two of them will connect the Kashgar-Herat railroad with Turkmen railways and the other one will connect it with Uzbek railways,” Boboyev said.