On May 1, 2023, the Ministry of Economy of the Afghan Interim Government announced that the first phase of the Mazar-i-Sharif-Herat-Kandahar Railway Project will start soon.

Previously, the Afghan Railway Authority (ARA) confirmed that preparations for its important railway project, the Trans-Afghan Railway Line, have been completed, and are currently negotiating with officials from Uzbekistan and Pakistan to start the project.

Extending the Afghan railway network from Mazar-i-Sharif to Kabul and then to Nangarhar province (Jalalabad), which will cross the Tolkham border and enter Pakistan via Peshawar.

Kazakhstan will provide rolling stock and tracks to assist in the construction of the railway project. It will be built with 1520mm Russian wide gauge.

The railway construction in Afghanistan has just started, and it is hoped to build a cross-border railway channel connecting Central Asia and South Asia through Afghanistan, including five neighboring countries including Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan (2 lines), Iran (2 lines) and Pakistan (2 lines). China's eight border railways.

Among them, the first railway in Afghanistan's history was opened to traffic at the end of 2011. This section of the railway is 75 kilometers long, from the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif to the border city of Hiladon, with a gauge of 1524mm (wide gauge). It is operated by Uzbekistan. It is currently only for freight, with an annual transportation capacity of only 120,000 tons.

In August 2016, the China-Arab freight train from Haimen, Jiangsu to Hiladen, Afghanistan arrived in Afghanistan via Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

The second border railway runs from the city of Herat in western Afghanistan to the city of Khaf in eastern Iran.

The Khaf-Herat Railway is a railway project aided by Iran to Afghanistan. It adopts standard gauge (1435mm) and has a total length of about 225 kilometers. At the end of 2020, the construction of the Khaf (Iran)-Rozanak (Afghanistan) section (about 138 kilometers) will be put into operation. Hav Station is the terminal node of Iran’s Eastern Railway, through which it can be seamlessly connected to Iran’s domestic railway network.

In September 2021, Atta established the Afghan transitional government. After that, Iran promised Atta that it would continue to complete the Khaf-Herat railway between the two countries. Currently, Iran is helping Afghanistan to build the Rozanak-Herat section (about 85 kilometers) in Afghanistan.

In addition, Afghanistan is also vigorously promoting the construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Iran five-country railway and the Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Turkmenistan three-country railway, as well as the Kandahar-Quetta Railway and the Jala Railway between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Labad-Peshawar Railway.

After the completion of the above projects, Afghanistan will be connected with Iran's Chabahar, Bandar Abbas and Pakistan's Karachi and Gwadar ports by railway.

The China-Ghita-Ayi Railway is planned to run from Kashgar, Xinjiang, through southern Kyrgyzstan and western Tajikistan to Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan, then along the northwestern border of Afghanistan to the historic city of Herat in the west, and then to the town of Khaf in northeastern Iran and Iran The railway network is connected with a total length of about 1600 kilometers. Among them, both China and Iran are quasi-gauge railways.

In January 2016, Afghan Foreign Minister Rabbani attended the Sino-Afghanistan foreign ministers’ press conference and said that during the talks between the Chinese and Afghan foreign ministers, the two sides discussed the five-country railway project connecting Iran via Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan. The Afghan side hopes to strengthen regional connectivity through this project, and the Arab side thanks the Chinese side for actively listening and considering it.

The five-country railway corridor will be an important transportation channel connecting resources in West Asia and Central Asia. The project construction will build a new pattern of interconnection between the Eurasian continent and open up China's new sea passages to West Asia, South Asia and the Indian Ocean.Editor/ZhangHui