Hairatan Rail Line

Hairatan ( prs, حیرتان; ps, حیراتان; Uzbek Cyrillic: Ҳайратон, Uzbek Latin: Hayraton) is a border town in northern Balkh Province of Afghanistan. The Hairatan dry port and border checkpoint is located in the eastern section of the town. It sits along the Amu Darya river in the Kaldar District of Balkh province. The river forms the border with neighboring Uzbekistan, and the two nations are connected by the Afghanistan–Uzbekistan Friendship Bridge. The city of Termez in Uzbekistan is a short distance away to the northwest of Hairatan, on the other side of the Amu Darya river.

Situated at an altitude of approximately , Hairatan is one of the major transporting, shipping and receiving locations in Afghanistan. It is also an official border crossing between the people of Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. Security in and around town is provided by the Afghan National Security Forces, which includes the Afghan Border Force. Every visitor or traveler between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan must possess a valid travel visa.

History

The Amu Darya region has been important in the history of civilizations from the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, and the area around Hairatan was important during early Indo-Iranian migration by the Andronovo culture. In the early 1990s, Hairatan was the location of the 70th Division of General Abdul Momen, who was loosely aligned with Abdul Rashid Dostum's National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan. After Momen's death by an RPG missile attack on 5 January 1994, the 70th Division split and Dostam loyalist Colonel General Helaluddin took command.

During the Karzai administration, the town became an important strategic location for Afghanistan. NATO-trained Afghan National Security Forces established bases to provide security and maintain border activities. The Afghan Border Police are in charge of protecting the border while the Afghan National Customs regulate and monitor all trade activities. They are backed by the Afghan Armed Forces.

Railway

A freight terminal in Hairatan is the terminus of one of three rail lines in Afghanistan - a 10 km link to Termez. On January 22, 2010, the construction was started of a 75 km rail link from Hairatan to a terminal at Gur-e Mar near the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, one of the major Afghan commercial centers. The project, part of the transport strategy and action plan of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Program, was contractually scheduled for completion by June 2011, but was complete ahead of schedule, in November 2010.

On May 25, 2010, then-U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, the president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), several the Afghan ministers, and fellow ambassadors from Japan, Finland, and Uzbekistan attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony inaugurating the Hairatan Rail Line. The United States and Japan are the two largest shareholders in ADB. The grant of the ADB covers 97% of the total project cost of $170 million, with the Afghan Government contributing $5 million. This rail link is the first phase of a larger rail network planned for the country, including further links to Iran via a line to Herat in the west and to Tajikistan via a line to Sher Khan Bandar in neighboring Kunduz Province. These future lines will create a rail corridor through north Afghanistan and enable freight coming from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to reach Persian Gulf ports on rail, avoiding the need to pass through Turkmenistan.

See also

* Transport in Afghanistan
* Afghanistan–Uzbekistan border
*Afghanistan–Uzbekistan relations
* Aqina (border crossing between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan)
*Sher Khan Bandar (border crossing between Afghanistan and Tajikistan)

References

External links

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Information on Hairatan rail station with photos

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Afghanistan–Uzbekistan border crossings
Populated places in Balkh Province