Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to build a new railway line “Darbaza – Maktaaral”

Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Marat Karabayev met with the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan Saidikrom Niyozkhodjayev.

The parties discussed implementation of industrial cooperation projects, expansion of cooperation in the fields of industry, transport and military-industrial complex.

Marat Karabayev noted that in the field of industrial cooperation, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are implementing 42 joint projects with a total cost of $2.1 billion, creating more than 10,000 jobs. There are 29 of them in Kazakhstan, 13 in Uzbekistan.

Also, during the meeting, the issues of transport projects, in particular, the construction of the new railway line “Darbaza – Maktaaral” were discussed.

The implementation of the 106 km line construction project from “Darbaza” station to “Maktaarol” station makes it possible to unload cargo at the “Saryagash” checkpoint and attract additional cargo transportation of up to 10 million tons per year, as well as to connect Maktaaral district (Turkestan region) with the main railway line. 

Also, according to the results of the negotiations, Marat Karabayev and Saidikrom Niyokhodjayev agreed to help increase air traffic between the countries.

To date, there are 20 weekly trips between the two countries: 5 on the Astana-Tashkent route, 14 on the Almaty-Tashkent route, and 1 on the Oktau-Nukus route.