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Uzbekistan
Transportation and Telecommunications
Uzbekistan inherited Soviet-era methodology and systems in both
its transportation and telecommunications networks. That legacy
has meant a gradual process of reorientating lines whose configuration
was determined by Uzbekistan's need for a primary connection with
the Russian Republic of the Soviet Union.
Transportation
The Soviet legacy included a relatively solid transportation
and communications infrastructure in Uzbekistan, at least relative
to other less developed countries. The landlocked position of
the country determines Uzbekistan's transportation needs, especially
as commercial ties are sought with more distant partners in the
post-Soviet era. On the eve of independence in 1991, Uzbekistan
could boast an extensive railway and road network that connected
all parts of the country. Rail transport is the major means of
freight transport within Uzbekistan, but the country has an extensive
road network as well. On the eve of independence, Uzbekistan had
close to 3,500 kilometers of rail lines and nearly 80,000 kilometers
of roads. Most cities and urban settlements in Uzbekistan also
provided local transportation networks. In 1991, some seventy-three
of 123 urban settlements offered their citizens internal bus transport,
and more than 100 offered transport on trolley lines. Although
the structure of national transportation is regarded as adequate,
much transportation equipment and application technology is of
1950s and 1960s vintage (see fig. 14).
Railroads
In 1990 railroads carried about 75 percent of Uzbekistan's freight,
excluding materials carried by pipeline. In 1993 the rail system
included about 3,500 kilometers of track, of which 270 kilometers
were electrified. More than 600 mainline engines served the system.
However, an estimated 1,000 kilometers of track require rehabilitation,
and 40 percent of the locomotive fleet has exceeded its service
life.
Because the main line connecting Uzbekistan with the Black Sea
crosses the Turkmenistan border twice, the withdrawal of the latter
country from the Central Asia rail system in 1992 cut that line
(which also must pass through Kazakstan and Russia) into several
parts. The segments now are alternately controlled by the Turkmenistani
or the Uzbekistani national railroad authorities. The Transcaspian
Railroad between the Amu Darya in the southwest and Tashkent in
the northeast is the main transportation route within Uzbekistan,
connecting Bukhoro and Samarqand in the south with the capital
city in the northeast. The Transcaspian line also has two major
spurs to other parts of the country. One spur runs southeast from
Kagan, near Bukhoro, through Qarshi to Termiz, reaching the southeastern
oases of the Qashqadaryo and Surkhondaryo valleys. The second
spur branches from the main Samarqand-Tashkent line east of Jizzakh,
passing northward to serve the Fergana Valley cities of Angren,
Andijon, Farghona, and Namangan.
In the Fergana Valley, a number of short spurs reach the local
mining centers of that region. The Kazalinsk line goes northwest
from Tashkent, across Kazakstan and into Russia; its main role
is moving cotton to the Russian mills. Especially for natural
gas, a pipeline network also is well developed, linking Uzbekistan
to the neighboring Central Asian countries and to the central
regions of the former European Soviet Union and the Urals. The
share of the railroads in passenger transportation is much more
modest than that in freight transportation; in 1990 less than
one-third of passenger kilometers was traveled on the rails.
Roads
The road network in Uzbekistan includes approximately 67,000
kilometers of surfaced roads and an additional 11,000 kilometers
of unsurfaced roads. At a density of about six kilometers per
1,000 inhabitants, the network is about twice as dense as the
average for the entire Soviet Union in 1991 and about the same
density as the current average for East European countries. (Density
by territory is about half that of Eastern Europe.)
The highway system carries about one-fourth of freight traffic
and about two-thirds of all passenger traffic (of which the bulk
is accounted for by bus lines.) The three major stretches of highway
are the Great Uzbek Highway, which links Tashkent and Termiz in
the far southeast; the Zarafshon Highway between Samarqand and
Chärjew in northeastern Turkmenistan; and the connector road between
Tashkent and Quqon. The Samarqand-Chärjew route connects with
a road that roughly parallels the northwestward course of the
Syrdariya along the Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan border, passing through
Urganch and Nukus before ending at Muynoq, just south of the Aral
Sea. The Fergana Ring connects industries and major settlements
in the Fergana Valley.
Air Travel
In 1993 Uzbekistan had nine civilian airports, of which four
were large enough to land international passenger jets. Tashkent's
Yuzhnyy Airport, the largest in the country, now serves as a major
air link for the other former republics of the Soviet Union with
South Asia and Southeast Asia, as well as a major hub linking
Central Asia with Western Europe and the United States. The addition
of Tashkent to the flight routes of Germany's national airline,
Lufthansa, greatly increased this role, and Uzbekistan's own airline,
Uzbekistan Airways, flies from Tashkent and Samarqand to major
cities in Western Europe and the Middle East. In 1994 its fleet
included about 400 former Soviet aircraft, including the Yakovlev
40, Antonov 24, Tupolev 154, Ilyushin 62, 76, and 86, and two
French Airbus A310-200s.
Transportation Policy
Because of the country's long political isolation from its historical
trading partners to the south, Uzbekistan's transportation infrastructure,
aside from air transport, is largely designed to tie the region
to Russia. The only rail outlets are northward. Uzbekistan's nearest
rail-connected ports are in St. Petersburg, 3,500 kilometers to
the northwest; the Black Sea ports, 3,000 kilometers to the west;
and Vladivostok and the main Chinese ports, 5,000 kilometers to
the northeast and east, respectively. Moscow is 3,500 kilometers
away. Such distances add significantly to export prices. For example,
the transportation of one ton of cotton sold in Western Europe
adds as much as US$175 to the selling price. Land routes to potential
customers rely on the stability and the transport system reliability
of the several countries through which Uzbekistani goods must
pass. Because of these conditions, transportation planners have
emphasized the availability of alternative routes and modes, relying
mainly on roads and railroads. To improve versatility, in 1993
the national airline signed intergovernmental treaties with China,
the United Kingdom, Germany, India, Israel, Pakistan, and Turkey.
Connections with the Iranian rail system and with the Pakistani
highway system are in the long-term planning stage. Under discussion
is a series of rail links that would connect Central Asia's rail
network with those of the region's southern neighbors. Rail and
road links planned with China through Kyrgyzstan and Kazakstan
also will expand Uzbekistan's reach and help to gradually reverse
the influence of Soviet-era commercial patterns on the configuration
of Uzbekistan's transportation network.
Data as of March 1996
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