Next Gen News

New Rail is the first part of the plan to connect to networks with Afghanistan's neighbors, "

ran the first train down first major railway in Afghanistan Wednesday, paving the way for a service as expected from the northern border, which should speed the flow of crucial supplies U.S. military. and become a center of future trade.

A train drawn into a new building in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, after a trial of 47 miles of the border with Uzbekistan, said Deputy Minister of Public Works Noor Gul Mangal , who was on hand for the arrival.

the new railway is the first step of an ambitious plan to link landlocked Afghanistan to the railroads extended their neighbors for the first time, eventually opening up new trade routes for goods traveling between Europe and Asia.

Afghanistan has never had a functioning railway network, although many projects were started and later abandoned, victims of the machinations of the game rivalry between Russia and the 19 th century Great Britain, and political differences early 20th century. The occupants abandoned some rail projects in the 1980s, and after years of bitter civil war makes it impossible to build such a.

So the line of the border town of Hairatan in Mazar-i-Sharif, an important step in a country eager for good news on the horizon. It could also be a critical process for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from next year and possibly a gateway for exports to Afghanistan, said Fred Starr, president of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington.

"It's really a great thing. It is very important both practically and symbolically, "said Starr.

In the short term, the service will help to release a bottleneck in the dry port Hairatan now holding the property - including fuel and other supplies for U.S. troops - during the loading of trains and trucks to a dangerous journey through the mountain roads of northern Afghanistan.

"Port of Hairatan is where most of the payload comes from within the country, it is very important," said Juan Miranda, director of the Central and West Asia Department Bank Asian Development Development, which funded $ 165 million.

allowing trains to come directly Hairatan will handle up to 10 times as much cargo, 4000 tons per month to 25.000 to 40.000 tons per month once the service is fully operational, the Asian Development Bank development said. Once in Mazar-i-Sharif, the assets can be transferred to most of the rest of Afghanistan on the road surface.

The United States has recently changed many of their supply line to the northern routes through Pakistan, and the importance of the roads of the North "was underlined last month when Pakistan - angered by a NATO attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers denies - closed two border crossings for U.S. supplies
three years ago to 90% of non-military supplies to Afghanistan was due in Karachi, Pakistan. Today, about 75% charge is sent through the network to the north.