Uzbekistan Railways, World Bank discuss new areas of cooperation

Uzbekistan Railways and the World Bank considered plans for further joint work, the press service of the state company reported.

Last week, the first deputy head of Uzbekistan Railways, Khikmatulla Rakhmetov, received Senior Transport Economist at World Bank, Victor Aragones. The guest got acquainted with the company's development plans and its transformation.

WB specialists promised to determine the amount of work required to reorganize the structure of Uzbekistan Railways, as well as to transition to new accounting and bookkeeping processes. In addition, the organization expressed its readiness to support the improvement of railway infrastructure.

One of the initiatives is to increase the speed of trains to 300 km/h. Now high-speed trains on local lines run at 250 km/h.

The WB proposed four areas of support to achieve the goals. An assessment of passenger traffic will help determine the feasibility and demand for modernization of each section.

Conducting a preliminary feasibility study of the project will give an idea of the expected benefits from the investment. Expanding the railway network and improving the quality of infrastructure will increase traffic safety and service efficiency.