DUSHANBE, July 21, 2014, Asia-Plus -- Construction of a rail link connecting Dushanbe, Vahdat and Yovon is expected to be finished by September 2016, according to the Ministry of Transport (MoT).

An official source at a MoT says construction of the Vahdat-Yovon railway is under way.

The Vahdat-Yovon railway that is 46.3 kilometers in length is being built in two stages.  The first phase of the project includes construction of 13 kilometers of railway from the railway station Ilyak in the Vahdat district to the railway station Gambuloq in the Roudaki district.  The second phase includes construction of a 33.3-kilometer railway from the Gambuloq station to the railway station Yovon-2 that will connect the railways Dushanbe-Vahdat and Yovon-Qurghon Teppa.

A $72 million loan has been attracted from the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) for implementation of this project.

We will recall that the present railway link joining the Tajik capital and Qurghon Teppa, which is 429 kilometers in length, runs across the territory of Uzbekistan and the Uzbek authorities have suspended rail traffic to the Tajik southern Khatlon province.

The Vahdat-Yovon railway will link the country''s central part with the southern province of Khatlon and will make it possible to shorten the distance by 152 kilometers.