Turkmenistan has started building the Tejen-Mary section of the Ashgabat-Turkmenabat highway. President Berdimuhamedov led the launch ceremony on Thursday, 17 February 2022.
The ceremony was simple, rather minimalist – no songs and dances, no crowds, just a handful of government officials and the construction contractor and their crew.
The president arrived at the construction site, some 200km east of Ashgabat, by helicopter.
Speaking to the government officials and construction workers at the ceremony the president highlighted theimportance of the successful implementation of the country’s road construction program, strengthening the role of Turkmenistan as a key transport and transit hub in the world.
He said that huge opportunities are opening up for the development of public-private partnerships, the introduction of efficient methods of managing the economy, and the rational use of vast natural resources.
The president said that the implementation of the project for the construction of the new highway will contribute to solving the problems of developing transport and transit corridors of Turkmenistan and integrating the country into the regional and international system of multimodal relations, and the effective use of its geo-economic potential.
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The first section of the highway — the Ashgabat-Tejen segment — was put into service on 29 October 2021.
Here are parts of a Turkmen media report, giving the details of the project:
The President of Turkmenistan took part in the inauguration of the 203 km Ashgabat-Tejen road, which is the first section of the high-speed Ashgabat-Turkmenabat highway. This was reported on the website “Turkmenistan: Golden Age”.
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The construction of the Ashgabat-Turkmenabat autobahn, the total length of which will be 600 km, is being carried out by Türkmen Awtoban CJSC, and the subcontractors are the individual enterprises Nusaýýollary and Hyzmat merkezi, as well as the economic companies Edermen and Altyn nesil. The total cost of the project is 2,3 billion USD.
The dates for the completion of the second (Tejen – Mary) and third (Mary – Turkmenabat) sections of the high-speed highway are scheduled for December 2022 and December 2023.
Here are more details from another media site of Turkmenistan:
The 600-kilometer highway is designed to speed up and increase the volume of cargo transportation through the territory of Turkmenistan. After linking with the Ashgabat-Turkmenbashi highway, the autobahn connecting the eastern region of the country with the capital will provide freight trucks with direct access to the Turkmenbashi International Seaport, and then by sea to the Caucasus, Europe, to the south of Russia, to the north of Iran, to the Persian and Oman gulfs, according to the report.
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The highway will have eight lanes – three main and one auxiliary on each side of the road. The width of the road will be 34.5 meters. The highway will start from the intersection, which will be built at the 24th kilometre of Ashgabat – Dashoguz road. Payment terminals, which will provide electronic payments, traffic control services and recreation area will be located at the same place.
For proper maintenance of the high-speed road, it is also planned to build relevant stations. Traffic will be controlled by an automatic system that, using continuous video surveillance, will collect, store and transmit all traffic data and information to the traffic supervision service. Reports from the weather station, including information on humidity and visibility distance, will also be sent to the traffic supervision service.
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Website of the contractor of the highway project: https://turkmenawtoban.com/en/news/
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The Tejen-Mary section of the Ashgabat-Turkmenabat highway is half of the planned Turkmenbashy-Turkmenabat highway. It is a vital link in the intra- and inter-regional connectivity initiatives in the North-South and East-West direction.
The Turkmenbashy-Turkmenabat highway is M37 highway. According to the UN ESCAP database, it is the Turkmenistan section of the European route E60 and Asian Highway AH5, which connects Brest, France to Irkeshtam, Kyrgyzstan on the border with the People’s Republic of China. It connects most of the major cities in the country from Turkmenbashy on the Caspian Sea on the west coast to Bukhara, Uzbekistan.
From Turkmenbashy (Turkmen: Türkmenbaşy) the highway proceeds east, passing through Jebel, Balkanabat, Gumdag, Bereket, Serdar, Bäherden, Gokdepe, Ashgabat, Gämi, Anew, Artyk, Kaka, Dushak, Tejen, Hanhowuz Reservoir, Mary, Bayramaly, crosses the Karakum Canal, proceeding north into the Karakum Desert of the Repetek Nature Reserve, passing Bagtyýarlyk şäherçesi, Turkmenabat, Farap, before crossing the Amu Darya and into Uzbekistan. /// nCa, 18 February 2022