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Tajikistan
Roads
In 1992 Tajikistan had 32,750 kilometers of roads, of which
18,240 kilometers were classified as main roads. Unlike the railroads,
the principal highway connects Dushanbe with the main northern
city, Khujand, about 300 kilometers away. However, because the
road crosses three chains of mountains, it is blocked by heavy
snows, avalanches, and landslides for several months each year.
Other main roads connect Dushanbe with Qurghonteppa and Kulob.
In 1993 only about 1,500 private automobiles were in use.
Air Travel
Tajikistan's principal airport is located in Dushanbe, the capital.
By the mid-1990s, the facility's only runway, which was too short
to accommodate large international planes, was in poor condition.
In 1995 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
gave Tajikistan a grant of US$4 million to repair and lengthen
the runway.
Tajikistan made two attempts to start its own airline in the
1990s. Tajik Air, a private joint venture with a British company,
lasted only a few months in the winter of 1993-94. That airline
had only a single airplane, leased from United Airlines, with
a crew of former employees of the defunct Pan American Airlines.
The venture failed because of increasing debts and lack of support
from the government. In 1995 Tajikistan entered into a joint venture
with the Portuguese airline Transportes Aereos Portugueses (TAP)
to provide two airplanes and personnel to a new national service,
Tajikistan International Airlines; maintenance of the aircraft
was to be performed by British Airways.
Data as of March 1996
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