Rails Through the Mountains: Kyrgyzstan Expanding Network in All Directions

By Bruce Pannier

On August 25, in the remote village of Kosh-Dobo in central Kyrgyzstan, construction finally started on Kyrgyzstan’s section of a railway that will connect the country to China and Uzbekistan.

It is one of the most important projects in Kyrgyzstan’s 34 years of independence. And it is not the only railway project in Kyrgyzstan, as the country is at last moving to better connect by rail, both internally and with its neighbors.

Three Dormant Decades

For the first 30 years of independence, no new railway tracks were laid in Kyrgyzstan, but that is now changing. Kyrgyzstan is about 90% mountainous. When Kyrgyzstan became independent in late 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, there were two railways leading into Kyrgyzstan. Both came from Uzbekistan to the west.

A northern line connected Uzbekistan’s capital, Tashkent, through southern Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek, and from there continued eastward to Issyk-Kul, a large lake and tourist area in the northeastern corner of the country. The other railway extended only a few dozen kilometers from the Uzbek border to Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan. The length of the two railways combined amounted to some 320 kilometers.

Work started on the 186-kilometer Balykchy-Kochkor-Kara-Keche railway at the end of March 2022. Balykchy is located at the western tip of Issyk-Kul. Since Soviet times, it has been the last stop on the train that originates in Uzbekistan and travels through Bishkek.

Kochkor is a village in Naryn Province, about 63 kilometers southwest of Balykchy. Some 120 kilometers further to the southwest is Kara-Keche, one of Kyrgyzstan’s primary coal-mining sites and the source of much of the coal used in the thermal power plant that supplies heat and electricity to Bishkek.

Chairman of Kyrgyzstan’s Cabinet of Ministers Adylbek Ksaymaliyev said in May 2025 that there are already plans to connect this railway line to the China-Kyrgyzstan-China line being built through southern Naryn Province.

The Eurasian Development Bank recently agreed to fund a feasibility study for extending the railway from Balykchy to the town of Cholpon-Ata, the main tourist town on the north shore of Issyk-Kul, with a stop at the Issyk-Kul airport at Tamchy. As it stands now, people headed to Cholpon-Ata by rail must switch from the train to car or bus at Balykchy to travel the remaining 80 kilometers to Cholpon-Ata.

In May 2024, President Sadyr Japarov called for that railway line to eventually reach the town of Karakol, at the eastern end of Issyk-Kul, some 140 kilometers from Cholpon-Ata.

Naryn is the biggest province in Kyrgyzstan in terms of territory, but its connections to the rest of the country are tenuous, particularly in the northeastern part of the province where Kochkor and Kara-Keche are located.

Kosh-Dobo is in the southern part of Naryn Province, near the borders of the Jalal-Abad and Osh provinces. The village is located on the route of the long-awaited China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan (CKU) railway that will run from Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang region to Andijan, Uzbekistan.

The project was first proposed some 30 years ago, but remained in the discussion stages until recently. Eastern and southeastern Kyrgyzstan are covered by the high mountains, the Tien-Shan and Pamir mountains, respectively. That has restricted Kyrgyzstan’s trade routes to Kazakhstan, in the north, and Uzbekistan, in the west.

The 486-kilometer CKU railway will be the first significant eastern route for Kyrgyzstan (there are two roads connecting to China). Ultimately, the railway puts Kyrgyzstan on a China-Europe route that should bring Kyrgyzstan substantial revenue from transit fees, as well as allowing Kyrgyzstan to develop mining sites with critical minerals in hitherto remote areas that will be near the 312 kilometers of the railway line that passes through Kyrgyzstan and transport them to processing plants and markets.

The Kyrgyz section of the railway offers some formidable challenges as it requires the construction of 46 bridges with a combined length of some 120 kilometers, as well as 27 tunnels. China is helping with construction and loaning Kyrgyzstan some $2.35 billion to help with costs for its section of the railway.

In March this year, Kyrgyzstan announced plans to build a railway from the southern city of Batken, some 60 kilometers northeast to Kokand in Uzbekistan. Kokand has links to other cities in Uzbekistan’s section of the Ferghana Valley, as well as to the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.

Riding the Rails

Kyrgyzstan’s government plans to have all these new routes operating by 2030. These lines would add more than 700 kilometers of new railway.

Timing is everything, and the geopolitical situation in Central Asia, in general, and in Kyrgyzstan in particular, has changed in the last decade. For most of the first 25 years of independence, Kyrgyzstan had poor ties with Uzbekistan, limiting the use of existing railways connecting the two countries and precluding any possibility of building new rail links, including the CKU.

Uzbek-Kyrgyz relations have grown much warmer since Shavkat Mirziyoyev became Uzbekistan’s president in 2016. The Kyrgyz-Uzbek border was finally demarcated, and Uzbekistan is participating in projects inside Kyrgyzstan, such as the construction of the Kambarata-1 Hydropower Plant.

When Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine, China’s trade with Europe was hampered by EU sanctions on goods transiting Russian territory, which led China to expand the Middle Corridor through Central Asia. Beijing’s decision to finally move forward with the CKU railway after all these years was no doubt prompted by the restrictions on moving goods through Russia.

Development of the domestic railway network was long overdue. Outside cities and towns, most of the roads are gravel or dirt.

Kyrgyzstan’s wealth lies in the mining industry, and the expansion of railways will help the country open and take advantage of mineral deposits. Remote communities in eastern Kyrgyzstan will benefit from being on or near the railways, as they should have better access to food and other goods.