Construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan (CKU) railroad is expected to kick off this year as economic relationships between Beijing and Tashkent are becoming closer, an Uzbekistan Railways official was on May 31 cited as saying by Yicai Global.

The CKU rail link was first proposed at least two decades ago as an important piece of the networt of East-West transit corridors stretching between Europe and China. This year, work should finally get under way on making it a reality, Umidulla Ibragimov, head of marketing and logistics at Uzbekistan Railways, told the Chinese newspaper.

A feasibility study for the line has been completed. Next up will be the development of more detailed designs and a financing scheme for the project, according to a trilateral document signed by the trio of countries involved.

The engineering that will be required in delivering the project will be formidable. Scores of tunnels will be needed in mountainous Kyrgyzstan, for instance.

Trains travelling along the 523-kilometre (325-mile) railway will depart from Kashgar in China's western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and arrive in Andijan in Uzbekistan after passing through Karasu in Kyrgyzstan.

The CKU will change the transportation map for Xinjiang and the whole of western China and accelerate the West China Development Project, Xinhua News Agency has reported.

In the first quarter of 2023, China topped Russia to become Uzbekistan's largest trading partner, with Chinese-Uzbek trade growing 7.3% y/y to nearly $2.35bn, accounting for almost 16% of Uzbekistan's total foreign trade, according to data released in April by the statistics agency of the Uzbek president’s office.

As of May 1, there were more than 1,800 Chinese firms in Uzbekistan. That put them at the top of the ranking by number, with Russian companies second and Turkish firms third.