Taliban said Thursday they had reopened a section of the Hairatan-Mazar-i-Sharif railway, a key trade route linking Afghanistan to Uzbekistan and the broader Central Asian rail network.
The reopening was marked by a ceremony in Balkh Province attended by Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s deputy chief minister for economic affairs.
Speaking at the event, Baradar praised Uzbekistan’s cooperation in developing Afghanistan’s railway infrastructure and said economic and trade relations between the two countries had expanded in recent years. He also announced the formation of a joint committee to oversee economic cooperation between the two sides.
According to Taliban officials, the reopened section includes 70 kilometers of railway track, 30 kilometers of auxiliary lines, five stations and facilities capable of unloading up to 50 railcars simultaneously.
The Taliban said the project would increase the corridor’s capacity for transporting commercial goods and improve trade flows between Afghanistan and regional markets.
They did not specify when the section ceased operations. However, both Taliban and Uzbek authorities have announced repair and rehabilitation work on parts of the railway in recent years. Uzbekistan said in August 2024 that it had completed a rehabilitation project on the Hairatan-Mazar-i-Sharif line.
The railway, Afghanistan’s first major rail corridor, became operational in 2011. The roughly 75-kilometer route connects the country through the Hairatan border crossing and the Afghanistan-Uzbekistan Friendship Bridge to Central Asia’s rail network. It was built with financing from the Asian Development Bank and support from Uzbekistan Railways.
The line plays a central role in transporting commercial goods, fuel, construction materials and humanitarian aid. The Hairatan border terminal remains one of Afghanistan’s busiest trade gateways and handles a significant share of the country’s imports.
The route is also part of broader regional connectivity plans aimed at linking Central Asia to markets in South Asia and beyond through Afghanistan, a long-standing objective promoted by regional governments and development partners.
