OREANDA-NEWS. April 05, 2012. The highest concentration of market services among all types of economic activity in 2011 was recorded in the transport sector (official statistics). This activity accounted for more than 30% of 41 trillion soums of the total market services.

Experts attribute this to the additional impetus for the development of the transport system of Uzbekistan given by the Presidential Decree of December 21, 2010 "On accelerated development of infrastructure, transport and communications construction for 2011-2015". As part of the projected investments in transport infrastructure (USD 6.9 billion), 48.9% of the funds account for modernization of road infrastructure, 22.9% - railways, and 9.4 - air transport.

A large-scale construction and upgrading of roads, railways, bridges, upgrading of motor vehicles, railway locomotives and rolling stock, acquisition of new medium and long-haul passenger aircrafts is carried out within the governmental document.

The main direction of the transport policy is integration of Uzbekistan into international transport communications, development of effective international routes for transportation of foreign trade and transit cargos, modernization of the transport sector and increasing transit capacity.

Accelerated development of the transport infrastructure made impact on the result of activities in this sector in 2011. According to official figures, last year, modes of transport transported more than 1.2 billion tons of cargo with a gain of 8.7% compared to 2010 and more than 6.3 billion passengers (an increase of 5.9%). The cargo turnover amounted to 80.9 billion ton-kilometers, exceeding the last year's figure by 6.8%, passenger turnover - 82.3 billion, a 7.8% increase compared to 2010, experts say.

Analysis shows that the undisputed leader in cargo and passenger transportation is road transport, which accounts for 10% of foreign trade and 88% of domestic passenger and freight traffic. In 2011 this kind of transport carried more than 1.1 billion tons of cargo (90.6% of total volume) and over 6.2 billion passengers (98.4% of total volume).

Comparative data characterizes the growth dynamics: in 2009 the figures were respectively 754.9 million tons (84.9% of total volume) and 4.4 million passengers (96.8% of the total number of passengers).

The share of private carriers in the total turnover of motor transport totaled 73.7% against 72.6% in January-December 2010, analysts of the statistical agency said.

Dynamic growth of motor transportations is directly related with development of roads.

The total length of transportation routes in Uzbekistan, according to the SJC Uzavtoyul, is 184 thousand kilometers. Of these, 42.6 thousand kilometers are the highways of common use, including 3.2 thousand km of international motorways.

As part of an ambitious program of renovation of the national highway in the coming years it is planned to reconstruct and build 1,501 km of roads, including the Uzbek section of the trans-European Road E-40, which lies in the direction of Beineu-Kungrad-Bukhara-Navoi-Samarkand-Tashkent-Andijan, with the length of 1,139 km, the company informed.

In the transport sector of Uzbekistan a special role belongs to railway transport, 35% of which are export-import and transit of cargoes. In 2011, the mainline railway transported 59.6 million tons of cargo, including coal, oil and construction materials, ferrous metals, chemicals, grain and milling products, etc. The analysis shows that over 50% of rail freight accounts for the oil and construction materials and mineral fertilizers.

Growth of traffic compared to the previous year made 4.8%.

Last year, the railway transport carried 14.9 million passengers, an increase of 2.7% compared to 2010.

According to SJSRC Uzbekistan Railways, the total length of railways is 7,000 km, of which 4,600 km are backbone railways. For further development of the complex, construction of new railway stations, upgrading of existing roads, electrification of railway lines, renewal of rolling stock is underway.

In recent years, the railway stations Navoi-Uchkuduk-Sultanuizdag-Nukus (341 km) Toshguzar-Baisun-Kumkurgan (220 km) have been built. They are designed to provide an uninterrupted rail link between northern, southern and central regions of the country.

The railway Toshguzar-Baisun-Kumkurgan also provided a direct rail access to Afghanistan.

In 2012, the railway company plans to invest 389.8 billion soums of own funds in development and modernization of railway transport. Eight investment projects this year are implemented in close coordination with programs of long-term development of industries and territories.

The high-speed railway line Tashkent-Samarkand is being improved, railway stations in the cities of Bukhara and Qarshi are electrified. Rolling stock is updated with modern high-performance locomotives, freight and passenger cars.

As for air services (freight, passenger, special), in 2011, 30.6 million tons of cargo (an increase of 3.8%) and 2.2 million passengers (an increase of 11.5%) were transported by air.

Since 1992 the country implements a state program of development of civil aviation of the Republic. It provides for modernization of the fleet, the construction of new airport complexes, radical reconstruction of air traffic control systems, upgrading of airfields modern ground-based technique, creation of own base for training of highly qualified personnel, improvement of management systems.

Uzbekistan Airways, which employs about 14 thousand workers, operates scheduled flights to more than 40 cities in the world, covering America, Europe, Middle East, Southeast and Central Asia, the CIS.

Last year, Uzbekistan increased its fuel pumping by 11.5% compared to 2010 - to 59.9 million tons. According to the statistics, over 14.3 thousand kilometers of gas and oil pipelines run throughout the territory of the republic.

The analysis of the density of Railways (roads per 1,000 square kilometers of territory) has shown leadership of hard surfaced roads. On average, 93.4 kilometers of roads have been built per one thousand square kilometers of the republic.

Pipelines are in second place with 31.8 kilometers per 1000 square km and the third place is occupied by railways - 14.1 km.