China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan highway opens to traffic

The China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan highway officially opened to traffic on February 25, People’s Daily reports.

Seven container trucks loaded with bean products left Uzbekistan’s Andijan, an important city on the ancient Silk Road, and headed for China along the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan highway Sunday afternoon. There will be another three container trucks carrying cotton yarns leaving for China in three days.

The 950-kilometer highway starts from Kashgar in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, goes through Osh in Southern Kyrgyzstan, and ends in Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent.

It serves as an important highway passage from the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang to the Amu Darya River Basin in Central Asia, as well as a significant part of the China-Central Asia-West Asia Economic Corridor.

The highway will shorten the transport time between Uzbekistan and China from 8 days to 2 days. It will also save around US$2.5 million of transportation expenses per year and bring more than a million jobs for the region along the route, according to Uzbek government.

The highway will also extend to Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe. The project is scheduled to be completed in April.