Uzbek Ambassador, Furkat A. Sidikov called on Federal Minister for Railways, Kh. Saad Rafique on Friday in Ministry of Railways. They agreed on mutual co-operation. "Pakistan and Uzbekistan should focus on establishing direct railway and air links that would go a long way in improving trade activities and people-to-people contacts" said Kh. Saad Rafique.
The areas of co-operation between Pakistan and Uzbekistan are described as intervention and co-operation in existing railway system, including up gradation of Carriage factory Islamabad and Locomotive Factory Risalpur. Second area is connectivity through ML I (Karachi to Jalalabad), ML II (Kotri to Attock) and ML III (Rohri to Zahedan).Third area of interest is mutual training programmes in Lahore Railway Training Centre and Tashkent Railway University.
Uzbekistan is very much interested in CPEC. For regional connectivity Uzbekistan has constructed 11 railway bridges in Afghanistan. As of 2008, Uzbekistan had 3,645 kilometers of rail lines, about 620 kilometers of which were electrified. A large percentage of the system's track requires major repair. The main line is the portion of the Trans-Caspian Railroad that connects Tashkent with the Amu Darya. There are rail links with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan (see Trans-Caspian Railway), Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan. Suburban traffic only exists around Tashkent.-PR