Kyrgyzstan has started implementing one of the largest infrastructure projects in Central Asia — the construction of an international railway line that will connect China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Full-scale construction work started on the entire highway on June 30. The project is supervised at the highest government level and is estimated at \$4.2 billion. Completion of the works and the launch of train traffic is planned by 2030.
The total length of the new railway corridor in Kyrgyzstan will be 304 kilometers. Due to the difficult mountain terrain, about 40% of the route will pass through engineering structures, including 27 tunnels and 41 bridges. This makes the project technically complex, but at the same time strategically important — both from the point of view of logistics and geopolitics.
The formal start of construction was given at the end of 2024, after signing a number of interstate agreements and preliminary engineering surveys. In April of this year, work began on all major sections of the route, including intersections with the internal transport network of Kyrgyzstan.
The China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway is seen as a key element of the region's new transport architecture. It will not only increase freight traffic between China and Central Asia, but also strengthen the region's role in global supply chains. In the future, the route will become part of multimodal corridors connecting Asia with Europe and the Middle East.
Among the expected benefits are shorter delivery times, lower transport costs, and diversification of logistics flows, bypassing congested or politically unstable routes. The countries participating in the project expect that the new line will become a catalyst for economic growth, investment inflow and deepening of interregional cooperation.
