Turkmenistan is making preparation for introducing its section of a rail link connecting Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan (TAT) into operation next month.

A statement released by Turkmenistan’s Cabinet of Ministers says Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov held a meeting on October 8 to discuss the pace of the construction of the Turkmen section of the TAT railway. 

The construction of the Turkmen section of this regional railway is expected to be completed in the first half of November.

A total length of the Atamurat-Ymamnazar section in Turkmenistan is 85 kilometers and the length of the section between border points Imamnazar (Turkmenistan) and Akin (Afghanistan) is three kilometers.

President Berdymukhammedov got acquainted with the pace of construction of the Turkmen section of the TAT railway in late September, according to Turkmenistan’s national news agency.

Berdymukhammedov reportedly underlined the significance of introducing this regional railway into operation in time.

Recall that Turkmenistan in mid-September announced acceleration of the pace of construction of the rail link that will connect Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) for construction of the rail link connecting the three countries was signed during a trilateral meeting of the presidents of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan that took place in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat on March 20, 2013.

The 400-kilometer railroad is expected to connect the Afghan town of Akina-Andkhoy to Atamurat-Ymamnazar in Turkmenistan and Panj in Tajikistan.

The presidents of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan officially inaugurated the construction of the railway connecting the three nations on June 5, 2013.  Presidents Hamid Karzai, Emomali Rahmon and Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov participated in the ceremony that took place in Turkmenistan’s northeastern province of Lebap.  They buried a time capsule with a message to future generations under the first section of the railway line near the town of Atamyrat.

The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan (TAT) railway will be a part of a broader regional transportation initiative that will open a new transit corridor between Central Asia and world markets through Indian Ocean ports, a route less than half as long as Central Asian existing railway export options through Russia to the Baltic Sea coast.  The TAT railway has a regional strategic implication, as it will enable Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan to have a railway line bypassing Uzbekistan.  While the TAT railroad will diversify the transport routes of Tajikistan and Afghanistan, the greatest beneficiary will be Tajikistan, as the TAT rail line will allow it to overcome its current transportation deadlock and dependency on Uzbek railroads for transit.  In the past Uzbekistan has frequently blocked its railway lines linking to Tajikistan, using Tajik transit dependency as leverage for political pressure.