«The question of who and how will finance the project for the construction of China — Kyrgyzstan — Uzbekistan railway remains open,» Minister of Transport of the Republic of Uzbekistan Ilkhom Makhkamov told reporters.
According to him, products from China come mainly through Kazakhstan. But Uzbekistan is working on the development of the Kyrgyz corridor. Conditions have been created for Irkeshtam, that is, the border post between Kyrgyzstan and China, to operate 24 hours a day, and conditions have been created for the movement of vehicles across the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic, for unimpeded passage to Andijan, to the border post of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
«Today, 7.5 times more cargo is transported along this corridor. Our main movement now is the project to build a railway on the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic. Tripartite feasibility studies have been developed on this issue. We are currently negotiating who will do this. We aim for all construction work to begin next year (2024). This is difficult now due to projects involving several countries. This is different from construction in our region. The main directions: where to start, in what style it will be done, a coordinated and prepared feasibility study,» Ilkhom Makhkamov said.
According to him, negotiations on the construction of Uzbekistan — Kyrgyzstan — China railway line began in 2017.
«In 2019, negotiations took place with the Chinese side on the implementation of the project. Chinese experts expressed their proposals regarding the territories through which this railway could run. By September of this year, it became known that the cost of the project was $5-7 billion, three states prepared an initial feasibility study, but the issue of financing remains open,» Ilkhom Makhkamov concluded.