Afghanistan ran its first train on Wednesday on a short stretch of track linking the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif with the Uzbek border, part of an ambitious plan to build a rail network and spur regional trade despite a raging insurgency. The government has been trying to lure foreign firms to mine the country’s untapped mineral reserves estimated at over $3 billion, but one of several stumbling blocks is the lack of railways to transport the goods out of the landlocked nation. It has also led to Afghanistan’s heavy reliance on its largest neighbour, Pakistan, to its east to bring vital supplies such as foodstuffs and oil into the country, and ties between the two have often been strained.
The rail link can also potentially strengthen the northern supply route for foreign forces fighting in Afghanistan as an alternative to Pakistan, which has closed off the routes following the deaths of two dozen soldiers in a NATO airstrike last month. A cargo-less train covered a distance of 75 km from Mazar to Hairatan on the border of Uzbekistan, Deputy Public Works Minister Noor Gul Mangal said, nearly a year after the track was laid. Wednesday’s run was aimed at testing the track and the signals and officials had pronounced it ready for formal inauguration by President Hamid Karzai, he said. “This is a matter of pride for us and a very important issue for Afghanistan,” Mangal said. Unlike its neighbours, where colonial powers Britain and Russia built grand railway projects, Afghanistan’s leaders more than a century ago resisted the railway age. It was only late in 2010 that the country’s first real railway track was completed to connect to the Uzbek network.