OREANDA-NEWS. May 08, 2013. Specialists of the O‘zbekiston temir yo‘llari state joint stock railways company spoke about the electrification pace of the Marakand-Karshi-Termez line during the press conference at the National press centre of Uzbekistan.

In the years of independence Uzbekistan railways sector received a powerful impetus to development and has turned into one of the flagship spheres of the national economy. currently is one of the flagships of the economy. O‘zbekiston temir yo‘llari SJSC  has been implementing ever more investment projects, aimed at reconstruction of the railway tracks, commissioning new high-speed rail lines, modern locomotives, freight and passenger cars. The issues of electrification of rail lines, increasing the reliability and reducing operating costs, have been in the forefront of the management’s attention.

According to the deputy chairman of the O‘zbekiston temir yo‘llari SJSC Sherzod Ismatullaev, national specialists have gained extensive experience in electrification of railway lines in the years of independence. To date, 684.8 km of railway lines have been electrified. The resolution of the President Islam Karimov "On accelerating infrastructure development, transport and communications construction in 2011-2015" from December 21, 2010 promotes further development of the industry.

One of the major projects is the electrification of the Marakand-Karshi-Termez railway line. Last year an agreement on attracting funds  for electrification of Marakand Karshi (140 kilometers long) from the Asian Development Bank and for electrification of the Karshi-Termez (325 kilometers length) from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) - was signed. Currently construction and road works are underway in these lines.

The experts and specialists noted that electrification of the Marakand-Karshi-Termez railway line will reduce the cost of running trains by 23 percent per year,  16000 tons of diesel fuel will be saved, the quality of services will improve, the shipping time will be reduced by 1.2 hours, and passengers will be to get to their destination 40 minutes faster.

Information on the current status of passenger traffic was also presented during the press conference. In the first quarter of 2013 nearly 756,000 passengers were transported in local services, over 3 million passengers used intercity connection, while more than 320,000 people traveled overseas. It is noteworthy that in four months of this year Afrosiyob highspeed trains carried nearly 34,000 people to their destinations.