Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov has described the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan (CKU) Railway undertaking as “not only a transport hall, however an vital strategic bridge connecting the nations of the East and West.” In 2024, then-Chair of the Cupboard of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan Akylbek Japarov referred to it as “a highway of life.”
The CKU Railway undertaking, connecting Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang to Andijan in Uzbekistan through Kyrgyzstan, has been underneath dialogue for greater than 20 years, with progress sluggish attributable to a variety of complicating components. Whereas the financial, infrastructure, and political advantages are clear for all three states, challenges to the undertaking have arisen associated to Sinophobic sentiments amongst some opposition, the dangers of a debt entice, disagreements over monitor gauge dimension, safety and environmental issues, and hesitation over rising dependence on different regional powers.
Regardless of these challenges, a few of that are but to be utterly solved, the undertaking lastly took a concrete step ahead with the signing of a ultimate building settlement in Beijing on June 6, 2024. Since July 2025, the CKU has been underneath energetic building.
The ultimate plan charts a 530 km pathway, with about 304 km passing by means of Kyrgyzstan’s Tien Shan mountains. The route will join Kashgar to Andijan, passing by means of Torugart, Makmal, and Jalal-Abad in Kyrgyzstan.
The undertaking options 50 bridges and 29 tunnels. Kyrgyzstan’s mountainous terrain, and the area’s seismic dangers, pose vital engineering and building challenges. The complete size of the tunnels is 104.83 km, with excavation ongoing in all of them, together with eight tunnels longer than 5 km. The plan options three main tunnels – Naryn No. 1, Kosh-Dobo, and Fergana – every over 12 km lengthy.
Earthworks have began on some sections, with roadbed formation underway, and 192.323 km of short-term roads have been constructed alongside the railway’s path to assist in building. 4 transformer substations have been put in, 2,095 utility poles have been constructed, and 259 km of energy strains have been strung, additionally to help the huge undertaking.
Round 2,000 Kyrgyz residents are concerned within the ongoing building, out of a complete of 5,000 staff. By the top of 2026, officers are aiming to have 5 p.c of the CKU constructed.
A joint undertaking firm (JPC) was established in Kyrgyzstan underneath native legislation, with China holding 51 p.c, Kyrgyzstan 24.5 p.c, and Uzbekistan 24.5 p.c. The undertaking is valued at $4.7 billion for the Kyrgyz part, with China lending $2.35 billion – half the overall – and the remaining 50 p.c to be invested by the opposite nations, with Kyrgyzstan contributing round $700 million. Kyrgyzstan will finance half of its share – 12.25 p.c – from the state price range, and China will present the remaining portion as a $305 million mortgage for a 25-year time period.
Primarily based on conservative estimates from the feasibility research, the preliminary freight quantity is predicted to be between 5 and eight million tonnes yearly, rising to 13-15 million tonnes over the long term. In November 2025, Hikmatulla Rakhmetov, the pinnacle of Uzbekistan’s state railway firm, Temir Yullari, mentioned that building of the CKU may very well be accomplished two years early, with beforehand deliberate completion set for 2030.
Among the many challenges the three states have overcome through compromise is the problem of gauge. They settled on a monitor gauge of 1,435 mm for the road from Torugart to Makmal, which is taken into account slim gauge by Chinese language requirements. Close to Makmal, nevertheless, the monitor will widen at a transshipment station, marking the beginning of the 1,520-mm-gauge part. The size of the Makmal-Jalal-Abad part is 145 km, and Torugart-Makmal is 160 km. A wheelset change facility might be arrange in Kyrgyzstan at Makmal station. A narrow-gauge line will hook up with this station from China, and a broad-gauge line will prolong farther towards Uzbekistan. The transshipment station will carry out features akin to breaking apart and assembling freight and switch trains; loading, unloading, transshipping, and sorting containers and cargo; weighing railcars and cargo; and transferring railcars between 1520 mm and 1435 mm gauges.
Different points persist and would require devoted and detailed diplomacy to handle.
Environmental issues pose a significant problem, as giant infrastructure tasks usually entail ecological dangers, particularly when tunnel drilling and explosives are concerned. The railway’s impression may very well be substantial attributable to Kyrgyzstan’s delicate mountain ecosystems and excessive seismic exercise. Doable outcomes embody deforestation, glacial soften, water contamination, ecosystem injury, and worsening residing circumstances within the space.
Not too long ago, contractors for the CKU railway have been fined by the Kyrgyz environmental company for violations.
Land acquisition and resettlement of residents alongside the deliberate route are among the many main ongoing challenges for Kyrgyzstan and demand correct and sustained consideration from decision-makers because the undertaking strikes ahead. Residents alongside the railway route will want to be relocated. Land acquisition and resettlement might result in social tensions, particularly if native communities see compensation as insufficient or view decision-making as missing transparency and public participation.
Through the building of the CKU railway, 214 homes in Kyrgyzstan will reportedly be demolished – 191 within the Jalal-Abad area and the remaining within the Naryn area. The Ministry of Transport of Kyrgyzstan has employed an unbiased valuation agency to finish property assessments. The ultimate report has been submitted to the Cupboard of Ministers for evaluation, and compensation for affected residents is now underway; however not everybody agrees with the compensation quantity. Some residents are dissatisfied with their property valuations, and there may be not but unanimous approval from the native inhabitants. For example, in line with a Kaktus.media report, two residents have disagreed with the quantity of compensation the state intends to supply them. Public conferences are ongoing to handle these and different points associated to compensation and land rights for locals affected by the development.
The importance of the CKU undertaking lies within the discount of the transit distance from East Asia to the Center East and Southern Europe by 700 km, and the reducing of transit occasions by as much as 10 days. It additionally promotes the event and use of pure sources alongside the route, gives direct transport entry to hydrocarbon sources in Persian Gulf nations, and enhances transport infrastructure within the Central Asian nations. Moreover, it supplies a brand new, environment friendly outlet to each Pacific and Persian Gulf ports, stimulates worldwide commerce, tourism, and financial cooperation, and goals to attach disjointed railway sections in northern and southern Kyrgyzstan to develop a home railway community.
The “undertaking of the century” is at the moment in its energetic stage. Regardless of a number of challenges, new alternatives are anticipated as soon as the CKU turns into absolutely operational throughout all three nations.
For China, this entails boosting its transit capability, creating its western areas, and fostering financial progress. For Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan – landlocked Central Asian nations – the intention is to turn into extra open and higher related to the world by serving as transit nations. The 2 Central Asian nations may even profit economically, socially, and politically. Financial advantages embody funds for the transit of products; social advantages embody employment alternatives for the native inhabitants, lots of whom should journey for work to Russia or European nations as labor migrants attributable to an absence of native jobs. Throughout building, many locals are concerned, and native companies additionally profit. Politically, the CKU goals to foster a steady and equitable partnership among the many regional nations and diversify transit routes, lowering reliance on sure different regional actors and rising Central Asia’s connectivity with the world extra broadly.
