Afghanistan to become a ‘transit crossroads’

KABUL (TOLOnews): The acting Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation said they are trying to turn Afghanistan into a transit crossroads by creating a standardized system.

Hamidullah Akhundzada said at a National Transit Day meeting that for the first time, four countries, including Afghanistan, have been connected by transit. The General Directorate of the Railways announced the signing of the contract with Kazakhstan to connect Aqina and Torghandi Railways. On National Transport and Transit Day, the acting Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation said they are trying to create a regular system to turn Afghanistan into a transit crossroads.

“For the first time, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan have been connected via transit,” said Hamidullah Akhundzada. “Much effort has been made to provide investment in this sector based on a regular transit and transport system, in order to turn our homeland into a ‘crossroads of the region’ in less time.” said Hamidullah Akhundzada, acting Minister of Transport and Aviation.

“The strategic and geopolitical position of Afghanistan is important because Afghanistan is a landlocked country, air transport and air corridors are currently operating…” said Rustam Hafizyar, Head of the Planning Department of Ministry of Transport and Aviation.

At the same time, the general director of the railway says that they have signed a contract with Kazakhstan’s professional engineers to connect the Aqina and Torghandi Railways. “In the next week or ten days we will sign another agreement with Kazakhstan,so that experienced Kazakh engineers will come and perform rail service in Aqina and make transfers from Torghandi to Aqina,” said Bakh-ur-Rahman Sharafat, General Chairman of the Railway. According to statistics and data from the National Statistics Administration, more than 309,000 tons of goods have been transited through Afghanistan in the first quarter of this year.