Kyrgyzstan starts building railway linking China, Uzbekistan

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan: Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov on Friday inaugurated the construction of a new railway linking China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan,...

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan: Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov on Friday inaugurated the construction of a new railway linking China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, aimed at opening up the region as a supply route to Europe.

Beijing has invested billions of dollars in building rail and road routes that traverse Central Asia, long seen by Russia as its sphere of influence.

Wearing a traditional felt hat, Japarov spoke at a ceremony shown live on Kyrgyz state television, which included the launch of flares in the three countries' national colours in the snowy mountains of the Jalal-Abad region in the south of the Central Asian country.

Covering a distance of almost 523 kilometres (325 miles), the strategically important railway will run west from the Chinese city of Kashgar in the northwestern Xinjiang region through the Kyrgyz border city of Jalal-Abad to Andijan in Uzbekistan.

The section in China will be around 155 kilometres while the Kyrgyz section will be the longest at 305 km and the Uzbek section will be 63 km.