DUSHANBE, April 21, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Over the first quarter of this year, an overall volume of rail shipments has amounted to 2.334 million tons, which is 1.1 million tons few than in January-March 2009, the Tajik Railways head Amonullo Hukumatullo told reporters in Dushanbe on April 21.

According to him, the volume of transit traffic over the report period has amounted to 1.256 tons, which is 859,000 tons, or 40.6 percent, fewer than in the same period last year.  The volume of cargo shipped in January-March 2010 by Tajik Railways itself has amounted to 1.076 million tons, which is 242,000 tons fewer than in the first quarter of 2009.

Over the same three-month period, Tajik Railways has carried 140,000 passengers, which is 45,000 fewer than in January-March 2009.

The Tajik Railways head attributed decrease in passenger traffic to decrease in the number of labor migrants traveling to Russia as well as year-round functioning of the Dushanbe-Khujand highway.       

At present Tajik Railways offers three routes to the Russian Federation (Dushanbe-Moscow, Kulob-Moscow, Khujand-Saratov) and four domestic routes (Dushanbe-Konibodom, Qurghon Teppa-Konibodom, Dushanbe-Pakhtaobod and Qurghon Teppa-Kulob).

Tajikistan’s rolling-stock includes 2,110 cargo cars, 389 passenger carriages and 55 diesel locomotives.

The total length of rails in Tajikistan is 954 kilometers; of that, 680 kilometers are the main railways.  At present there are 33 railroad stations in the republic.