Improving Transnational Transport Corridors

In the OIC Member Countries: Concepts and Cases

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As such, investment projects on corridor 3 are focused on completing rail links, which counts

around 60% of the total investment value in corridor 3, followed by road projects (around

30% of the total investment)

. This is in line with the Railway Strategy for CAREC 2017-2030

that recognizes the contribution of regional cooperation in railway development to increase

interregional and intraregional trade. The vision behind this strategy is to make rail transport

the preferred mode of choice for trade: quick, efficient, accessible to customers, and easy to use

throughout the region. However, most CAREC countries have limited public resources to

finance major rail investments.

For corridor 3, there are 24 investment projects (valued at $7,456 million) that consist of road

construction and rehabilitation projects, railway construction, BCPs improvement, equipment

purchase, and airport projects. 14 projects are completed and the rest are ongoing. The list of

the projects can be found in Appendix 4.

The majority of the railway projects will be in Afghanistan, completing the rail link between

Andkhoy and Shirkhan Bandar, which will connect Tajikistan with Turkmenistan through

Afghanistan. Currently the rail route on corridor 3 has low traffic volume. A future expansion

of the use of this railway corridor is however expected given the strategic importance of the

port of Bandar Abbas and the potential economic growth in Iran. Improvement of security and

economic growth of Afghanistan are keys to realize it. This project is on-going and is expected

to complete in 2018.

Given numerous economic and transport corridors in Eurasia, as well as existing and emerging

IFIs, prioritization and complementarity of infrastructure investments can be an emerging

issue

CAREC Transport and Trade Facilitation Strategy 2020, 2014.

Based on CAREC’s response on online survey undertaken by Fimotions (2017).