DUSHANBE, June 5, 2013, Asia-Plus – A groundbreaking ceremony for construction of a rail link that will connect Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan took place in Lebap velayat (province), Turkmenistan on June 5.

Turkmen national news agency TDH reports the ceremony was attended by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov of Turkmenistan, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and President Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan.

The ceremony was reportedly preceded by a trilateral meeting of leaders of Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan that took place in Turkmenabat, the administrative center of Lebap velayat.  The leaders of the three countries noted that implementation of that ambitious project would give a new impulse to further development of the regional transport network and expansion of the regional economic and trade cooperation, TDH said.

Presidents Emomali Rahmon, Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov and Hamid Karzai buried a time capsule with a message to future generations under the first section of the railway line near the town of Atamyrat.

We will recall that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for construction of the rail link connecting the three countries was signed during a trilateral meeting of the presidents of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan that took place in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat on March 20 on the sidelines of the International Navrouz Celebrations.

The 400-kilometer railroad is expected to connect the Afghan town of Akina-Andkhoy to Atamurat-Ymamnazar in Turkmenistan and Panj in Tajikistan.  Turkmen workers are also to build the Afghan section of the railway.

The construction work is scheduled to be finished by 2015.  The railway link will play an important role in strengthening the economies of the countries and peoples in the region.

China, Iran and Kyrgyzstan are expected to join this ambitious project.

The first meeting of the Joint Coordination Working Group for the practical implementation of the MoU between Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan for the railway construction project took place in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan on April 18.  The delegations of the three countries discussed a number of specific issues related to the prospects of implementation of the project aimed at construction of the Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Turkmenistan railway.