Uzbekistan is a double landlocked country; however, with three Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) corridors crossing its territory, it is a key transit country for trade in Central Asia. Roads and railways are the dominant modes of transport, with railways vital for the bulk haul of minerals and freight, and intercity passenger services in urban areas. Given the importance of the speed and capacity of the railways for the country’s economic development, the entire rail system needed to be modernized and restructured.
The CAREC Corridor 6 (Marakand–Karshi) Railway Electrification Project, approved by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a loan of $100 million in September 2011, was designed to help Uzbekistan modernize its railway sector and strengthen trade cooperation with its neighbors. It was to electrify 140 kilometers (km) of the Marakand–Karshi section of CAREC Corridor 6 that runs north-south and links Europe through Central Asia to the Middle East and South Asia. Afghanistan was expecting more traffic from Uzbekistan and its northern neighbors via this corridor, especially after the completion of the ADB-funded Hairatan to Mazar-e-Sharif railway in northern Afghanistan in 2010. The corridor would also help Uzbekistan provinces to increase their exports of cotton and its by-products, horticulture products, marble, oil, and gas.
The project’s envisaged impact was increased regional trade and accelerated economic growth. Its expected outcome was improved operation on the Marakand-Karshi rail line. It had two planned outputs at appraisal: (i) 140 km electrified rail line from Marakand to Karshi; and (ii) improved management capacity of the O‘zbekiston Temir Yo‘llari Joint-Stock Railway Company (UTY), the agency responsible for the management and operation of the country’s railway network.
With a sound and adequately formulated design and an appropriate financing modality, the project achieved all its targets. It expanded the use of innovative and modern railway technologies, including providing modern locomotives, applying the latest technology in train traction, installing modern automatic passenger transportation controls and automatic train operation systems, and reconstructing and modernizing the railway infrastructure. It resulted in an increased average running speed for passenger and freight trains; and its transformative effect, which was reflected in the improved competitiveness of the railway system and the quality of service, led to increases in railway freight volumes and carrying capacity, and strengthened capacity of the trans-Afghan corridor.
Overall, the project helped to (i) increase the role of the railways in external and internal transportation services; (ii) optimize operation and maintenance costs through the introduction of modern railway technologies; (iii) reduce travel time for passengers and freight traffic and increase the reliability and safety of transportation; (iv) collect surplus income from the transit transportation of international freight and passengers by increasing the competitiveness of railway services at external markets; (v) improve the ecology and environment by reducing pollution and carbon emissions; (vi) improve the performance of the unified railway network of Uzbekistan; and (vii) support the conditions for accelerating the project region’s social and economic development and boost further development of transportation and communication between the regions of the country.
The project had the UTY as executing agency. The UTY established a project implementation to manage the project on a day-to-day basis.
