The Project Office for coordination over the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan railway project has been officially opened in Tashkent, Dunyo said on Sunday.

According to the Ministry of Transport, the opening ceremony was attended by President Special Envoy for Afghanistan Ismatulla Irgashev, Minister of Transport Ilkhom Makhkamov, Advisor to the Minister of Investment, Industry and Trade Abdulla Khashimov, Deputy Chairman of Uzbekistan Railways Akmal Kamalov, Ambassadors of Pakistan and Afghanistan, , head of the Afghan Railway Authority Bakht ul-Rahman Sharafat.

The goals of the Project Office is reportedly to coordinate joint measures to develop a feasibility study and accelerate the practical implementation of the project. All participants noted that the timely opening of the Project Office will transform the actions of the parties to accelerate the practical implementation of the project from regular to permanent.

Envoy Ismatila Irgashev delivered a welcoming speech and noted: “On the initiative of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, consistent productive work has been carried out since 2018, and the opening of the Project Office is the next step in the actions of the parties to accelerate the implementation of the Project.”

- The timeliness of opening a project office directly in Tashkent to coordinate the construction of the project will bring the Central Asian countries closer to the 230 million population of the Pakistani market, as well as open up opportunities for trade with the states of the Arabian Sea basin along alternative competitive routes. The implementation of the project will bring the regions to a higher level of development, as well as revive the interconnection of peoples who respect a common history, said Pakistani Ambassador Ahmed Farooq.

– The opening of a project office in Tashkent will make it possible to organize the collaboration of the Parties’ specialists directly in a face-to-face format more efficiently, and during the implementation of the project it will be possible to transport millions of tons of natural resources and other goods from Russia and Central Asia to the countries of South Asia, as noted by the Chairman of the Afghan Railway Administration Bakht ul-Rahman Sharafat. While, he expressed gratitude to the Uzbek authorities, which cares more about the development of the real sector of the Afghan economy than the Afghan side.

On May 11-12, regular trilateral negotiations took place on further promotion of the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan railway line project, where the parties discussed issues related to accelerating the implementation of the project.