China marks breakthrough on railway linking Central Asia to Europe

China has completed drilling a key tunnel on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, which will create a shorter trade route to Europe and bypass Russia.

China has completed drilling a 210-meter tunnel on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, marking a major construction milestone on a project designed to provide a shorter trade route from China to Europe.

The tunnel is the first to be fully drilled in the Kyrgyz section since large-scale construction began in June 2025, Xinhua reported, citing the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway Company, a joint venture formed by companies authorized by the three governments.

Overall construction in the Kyrgyz section has reached 17%.

The entire railway will stretch more than 500 km, including about 305 km through Kyrgyzstan. It will connect Kashgar in China's western Xinjiang region with Andijan in Uzbekistan, crossing the mountainous terrain of Kyrgyzstan.

A freight train bound for Malaszewicze, Poland leaves the railway port in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, China in 2018. Photo by Reuters

Once operational, the railway is expected to provide the shortest land route from China to the Middle East and Europe. It could cut transit times by as much as eight days compared with the China-Europe Railway Express, whose three main routes pass through Russia or Kazakhstan, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

For landlocked Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, the project will provide direct overland connections to China and markets in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to Xinhua, construction is under way on 27 tunnels, 43 bridges and 88 roadbed sections, while work has also begun on 20 railway stations.

The project was first proposed in 1997 but has faced years of delays due to difficult terrain, engineering challenges, differences over railway gauges and geopolitical concerns.

The 167.5-kilometer section from the Chinese border to Makmal in Kyrgyzstan will use China's standard gauge, while the remaining nearly 140 kilometers toward Uzbekistan will retain the Soviet-era broad gauge.

A transshipment hub at Makmal will connect the two systems.

Kyrgyzstan, the railway's main beneficiary, expects its eventual freight capacity to reach up to 15 million tons, more than twice the country's 2025 capacity.

The projection has sparked optimism over the railway's economic potential. Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister Edil Baisalov said the route could generate more than US$300 million a year, "even under the most pessimistic scenarios," as cited by the South China Morning Post reported.