Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar’s visit to Kabul on July 17, 2025, officially paved the way for fast-tracking the Uzbekistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan (UAP) railway project. The signing of the landmark Trilateral Agreement or the Framework Agreement on the Joint Feasibility Study for the Naibabad–Kharlachi railway reflects a significant step in Pakistan’s quest for accessing the heartland of Central Asia. This represents a groundbreaking development for Pakistan as it edges closer to consolidating its ‘Vision Central Asia’ guided by the pursuit of geo-economics. Moreover, the development is particularly important considering the broader progress on the Trans-Afghan railway.
The UAP Railway Corridor has been widely recognized as a major milestone for regional connectivity in South and Central Asia. The project envisions extending 700 kilometers of railway line starting off from Termaiz (Uzbekistan), passing through Mazar-i-Sharif and Logar in Afghanistan, making its way to Pakistan through the Karlachi border crossing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.[1] The estimated cost of the project is $4.8-7 billion. This direct overland route offers the shortest path connecting Central Asia with the ports of Pakistan, providing CARs strategic access to the Arabian Sea[2].
The route forms the Eastern Corridor of the broader Trans-Afghan Railway whereas the Western Corridor runs from Mazar-e-Sharif (Afghanistan) to the industrial city of Herat, passing through the town of Dilaram (Nimroz) and Kandahar (Afghanistan) to enter Pakistan via Chaman border, finally reaching Pakistani seaports (Karachi and Gwadar). Analysts label it as the “Suez Canal of Asia”. This mega-infrastructural project can virtually transform regional trade by decreasing freight transit time between Uzbekistan and Pakistan by up to five days[3] while slashing transportation costs by about 40 percent. Some conservative estimates predict this railway line to be shipping between 15 to 20 million tonnes of cargo annually by 2030[4], illustrating its considerable geo-economic potential, thus making it into one of the most critical economic arteries linking Central Asia and South Asia.
