Railway transportation in Kyrgyzstan increases by 4.1% since beginning of year

Bishkek, Sept. 28, 2021 . / Kabar / . During a press conference at Kabar News Agency on Tuesday, Deputy Director General of the Kyrgyz Temir Zholu (Kyrgyz Railways) National Company State Enterprise Dastan Usubakunov told about the activities of the company for the 8 months of 2021.

In 8 months of 2021, the Kyrgyz Railways transported freight in the amount of 4 million 722 thousand tons, or 104.1%. Thus, the growth is 186,600 tons (4 million 535 thousand tons in 8 months of 2020).

"The growth is provided by 160.6% increase of construction cargo imports to the republic, 601.1% increase of oil products exports, 378.3% increase of scrap metal, 269.9% increase of sugar and 244.8% increase of food group products," Usubakunov said.

In addition, the deputy head of the state enterprise pointed out that in order to maintain the current cargo flow and increase the additional volume of freight on the Kyrgyz Railways in 2021, the cost of large containers was reduced by more than 70% within the framework of the implementation of agreements between the Kyrgyz Railways and Uzbek Railways to increase transit cargo by increasing multimodal transport in the direction of China - Kyrgyzstan - Uzbekistan - Turkmenistan and then Azerbaijan, Turkey and Europe or to Iran and the Persian Gulf countries.

“One of the most important directions of the work of the Kyrgyz Railway is to meet the demands of the population in passenger transportation. Thus, the Kyrgyz Railways is expected to carry 76,897 passengers, or 104,944 passengers more than in the corresponding period in 2021 (71,953 passengers in 2020)," Dastan Usubakunov said.

He added that since March 17, 2020 international passenger trains have been canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic in Kazakhstan.

"A circulation of passenger trains within the republic was resumed starting from Dec. 31, 2020,” the director general of the Kyrgyz Railways said.

As a result of the work, the company's balance sheet profit amounted to KGS 1 million 290 thousand since beginning of 2021 (in 8 months of 2020 – KGS 597 thousand 417), the growth was KGS 929 thousand, or 130.5%.