Officials of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan have vowed during a meeting in Doha to expedite the trans-Afghan railway project, Taliban* spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Trans-Afghan project, which will extend the railway from Uzbekistan to Pakistan through Afghanistan, was discussed during a "quadrilateral" assembly on tuesday in Doha. According to Zabihullah Mujahid "all parties requested the early start and completion" of the project.
The Afghanistan-Trans initiative is a joint venture between the governments of the three countries which will jointly lay railway lines spanning over 700 km. The track is expected to gradually link Central and South Asia from Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent to the Pakistani city of Peshawar via Kabul.
This would end the dependence of the three countries on roadways for cargo while providing them with an alternative mode of transport that would be much cheaper compared to moving goods through trucks and other heavy vehicles.
Envisaged in 2007, the overall cost of constructing the Uzbekistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan Railway Project has been estimated to be $7 billion.
*under UN sanctions for extremism