Technical and economic studies continue in line with the establishment of the 'Five Nations Railway Corridor' to run through Afghanistan

Officials from the Afghanistan National Railway Authority (ANRA) said that studies for the establishment of the multinational railway project are 50% complete. According to ANRA, about 900 kilometers of railway line will be built in Afghanistan and will connect Afghanistan’s northern regions to the west. Five nations including Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Iran and China are participating in the project. The Economic Advisor for the Iranian embassy to Afghanistan said his country strongly supports the establishment of the project between the 5 countries which will also cover Iran’s Chabahar and Bandar-e-Abbas ports. “We fully support this project, work has already been started on it, we hope that all countries in the region come forward for this project,” said the Iranian diplomat. Based on the agreement signed between the five countries in this respect, every member country has to establish a total of 2,100 kilometers of railway line within the next five years. “This project plays a vital role for regional connectivity, we are trying to wrap up the preliminary work,” said a senior official of ANRA. Economic experts have heralded the project as a milestone to further boost economic cooperation in the region and to leverage Afghanistan’s rail networks in the years to come. A preliminary agreement for developing the proposed China–Kyrgyzstan–Tajikistan–Afghanistan–Iran railway line was signed in the Republic of Tajikistan in December 2014.
Five Nations Railway Corridor
The Five Nations Railway Corridor aims to increase regional commerce and spur job creation along with larger trade volumes. This project connects China on one end and Iran on the other over a total distance of 2,100 kilometers, traversing the countries of the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan in the process. Over one thousand kilometers of the rail corridor will stretch through the Afghan provinces of Herat, Badghis, Faryab, Jawozjan, Balkh and Kunduz. The Afghan section of the rail line will be partially funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and will improve Afghanistan’s access to the Iranian ports of Chabahar and Bandar Abbas, providing ample opportunity for another order of magnitude of trade expansion.