The Trans-Afghan corridor is planned to be built by 2028. Even if it goes through difficult terrain and with political instability abound, the rail project has captured the interest of many surrounding countries. It has the potential to strategically connect Central Asia with the Indian Ocean.
Afghanistan’s northern neighbour Uzbekistan seems to be spearheading the railway’s development. On May 17, it announced that it had sent a first group of engineers to Afghanistan to talk to the Taliban’s foreign minister about the construction of the railway.
Uzbekistan’s transport minister also attended the meeting, suggesting that both the Taliban and Uzbekistan take the proposed rail route rather seriously. Uzbekistan also announced that it “expects the project to be finished towards the end of 2027”, and that it will shorten travelling times from 35 days to 5 days, presumably towards the Indian Ocean.
Moreover, a preliminary route has now surfaced. The route is supposed to start at the Uzbek border towards Mazar-e-Sharif, cross the mountain range to capital city Kabul and then continue towards Pakistan. From there, it will link up with Pakistan’s port city Karachi at the Indian Ocean.
Trans-Afghan corridor sparks international interest
Besides Uzbekistan, other countries in the region are now regularly meeting each other to discuss the topic. For example, Kazakhstan and Pakistan agreed to establish multimodal transport across Afghanistan. While not yet using rail as the primary mode of transport, it signals the countries’ willingness to seek out routes across Afghanistan.
Pakistan recently also met with Uzbekistan to discuss the Trans-Afghan route. The former is interested in shipping its agricultural products to Kazakhstan, Belarus and Russia. As for the latter, Russia even signalled its readiness to remove the Taliban from its list of terrorist organisations. It recently also invited the Taliban to a transport event in Kazan for the purposes of discussing Afghan logistics.
Nevertheless, the future of the Trans-Afghan corridor looks rather uncertain in many ways. Afghanistan is a famously difficult country to traverse and has a history of instability that can compromise safety along the route. Moreover, the route will lead into Pakistan before it reaches the Indian Ocean. The Taliban and Pakistan are not exactly on friendly terms, which may complicate matters.