Uzbekistan starts building railroad to Mazar-e-Sharif

Warrior Citizen Media Center (IMA)

Hairaton, Afghanistan government officials and commercial transportation representatives meet with U.S. military leadership in Marchto discuss current and future logistics processes.

The railway connecting the Afghanistan-Uzbekistan border with Mazar-e-Sharif has been launched, according to an ISAF press release:

KABUL, Afghanistan – Construction of the railway line between Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan, and Termez, Uzbekistan, was officially launched in the Afghan border town of Hairatan, Tuesday....

The 75-kilometer line will run mainly through uninhabited areas, with three railway stations and several other stops along the way. Millions of tons of goods are expected to be transported benefiting up to five million people.

The $165 million project is being constructed by Uzbekistan's state rail company and is funded by the Asian Development Bank.

This area, recall, is where Pentagon officials say the largest bottleneck on the U.S. military's Northern Distribution Network is located. The ISAF press release doesn't give any projected date of completion of the railroad, but at the end of 2009, Pentagon officials said the railroad would take "12 to 18 months."

That would put the completion of the railroad some time in the first six months of 2011 -- just in time, it would seem, for it to start shipping U.S. equipment out of Afghanistan.