OREANDA-NEWS. March 24, 2008. The first trains with rails and other materials for construction of the Turkmen section of the Uzen-Gyzylgaya-Bereket-Etrek-Gorgan railway came to the Bereket station. In total, equipment, machines and spare parts procured for the Ministry of Railway Transport of Turkmenistan amount to over US\\$ 166 million at the first project stage. In accordance with the Resolution of the President of Turkmenistan, the foreign companies - the winners of the international tenders will procure the construction project

In the nearest future the expert commission of the Ministry of Railway Transport of Turkmenistan will announce the winner of the international tender, in which the companies from Kazakhstan, China, Iran, Turkey, Russia, Japan, the EU member states competed. The tender is aimed at selecting the investors, subcontractors and contractors for financing and construction of the Turkmen sector of the railway from Bereket to Etrek. Thus, for the first time a foreign company will lay the railway in the territory of Turkmenistan.

The idea of laying the North-South overland transport corridor was put forward by President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov last May at the Turkmen-Russian-Kazakh summit in Turkmenbashi town. Later President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad supported this initiative during the meeting with the Turkmen leader in Tehran. The countries of the region and the EU member states showed intense interest in the project on laying the transnational route, which opens a direct access to the ports of the Persian Gulf.

On December 1, 2007 the Turkmen leader gave start to construction of the 700-km Turkmen section of the Uzen-Gyzylgaya-Bereket-Etrek-Gorgan railway in Bereket. The design and survey works have been started along the full length of the future 900-km railway, which will be laid from the Kazakh steppes across the Karakum Desert to the Gulistan Province in the north of Iran. Thus, the unique, unprecedented by scale project has entered the practical stage. According to specialists, 10-12 million tones of goods will be transported by rail each year.

The new railway will shorten the distance of transporting goods from Russia and Kazakhstan to the Persian Gulf ports to 700 kilometres and will be an important link of the transcontinental transport corridor between China and Europe. Therefore, the participating countries can expect the considerably benefit from transit freight traffic. By its significance the project on creating the new transport system can be compared to the Great Silk Route, on which Turkmenistan plays the role of an intersection of continental importance. The future trunk railway will promote development of mutually advantageous intergovernmental co-operation and become a crucial factor for social and economic development of the region.