Transport in Turkmenistan

Transport in Turkmenistan includes roadways, railways, airways, seaways, and waterways, as well as oil-, gas-, and water pipelines. Road-, rail-, and waterway transport fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry and Communications.

During Soviet times Turkmenistan's transportation infrastructure was in general disrepair and neglected.

Since 1991, Turkmenistan has completed a number of major national and international transportation projects.

Turkmenistan is also part of the international transport corridor created under the Ashgabat Agreement, signed by India, Oman, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, for creating an international transport and transit corridor facilitating transportation of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.

Airways

thumb|right|200px|[[Turkmenistan Airlines Boeing 767-300ER.]]

Air service began in 1927 with a route between Chardzhou (Türkmenabat) and Tashauz (Dashoguz), flying German Junkers 13 and Soviet K-4 aircraft, each capable of carrying four passengers. In 1932, an aerodrome was built in Ashgabat on the site of the current Howdan neighborhoods, for both passenger and freight service, the latter mainly to deliver supplies to sulfur mines near Derweze in the Karakum Desert.

Airports serving the major cities of Ashgabat, Dashoguz, Mary, Turkmenabat, and Türkmenbaşy, which are operated by Turkmenistan's civil aviation authority, Türkmenhowaýollary, feature scheduled domestic commercial air service. Under normal circumstances international scheduled commercial air service is limited to Ashgabat. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, international flights take off from and land at Turkmenabat, where quarantine facilities have been established.

State-owned Turkmenistan Airlines is the only Turkmen air carrier. Turkmenistan Airlines' passenger fleet is composed only of Boeing aircraft. Air transport carries more than two thousand passengers daily in the country. Under normal conditions, international flights annually transport over half a million people into and out of Turkmenistan, and Turkmenistan Air operates regular flights to Moscow, London, Frankfurt, Birmingham, Bangkok, Delhi, Abu Dhabi, Amritsar, Kyiv, Lviv, Beijing, Istanbul, Minsk, Almaty, Tashkent, and St. Petersburg.

Small airfields serve industrial sites near other cities, but do not feature scheduled commercial passenger service. Airfields slated for modernization and expansion include Garabogaz, Jebel, and Galaymor. A new airport at Kerki was commissioned in June 2021 and is slated to begin regular domestic passenger service in January 2022. The new Turkmenabat International Airport was commissioned in February 2018.

In 2014, Turkmenistan had an estimated 26 airports. One heliport was in operation.

Railways

thumb|Turkmen Diesel locomotive

The first rail line in Turkmenistan was built in 1880, from the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea to Mollagara. By October 1881 the line was extended to Kyzyl-Arvat (today's Gyzylarbat), by 1886 had reached Chardzhou (today's Turkmenabat). In 1887 a wooden rail bridge was built over the Amu Darya, and the line was continued to Samarkand (1888) and Tashkent (1898). The rail line connecting Mary to Serhetabat was completed in 1898, and the train ferry between Krasnovodsk (today's Türkmenbaşy) and Baku began operating in 1905.

Rail service in Turkmenistan began as part of Imperial Russia's Trans-Caspian Railway, then of the Central Asian Railway. After the collapse of the USSR, the railway network in Turkmenistan was transferred to and operated by state-owned Türkmendemirýollary.

Rail gauge is the standard Russian- and Soviet 1520 millimeters.

The total length of railways is 3181 km. Only domestic passenger service is available, except for special trains operated by tour operators. The railway carries approximately 5.5 million passengers and moves nearly 24 million tons of freight per year.

thumb|right|200px|[[Bereket railway station (Turkmenistan)|Bereket Railway Station in (Bereket) is an important junction of the Trans-Caspian Railway and North-South Transnational Railway.]]

The Tejen-Sarahs-Mashhad railway, built in 1996 by Turkmenistan and Iran, has become a vital freight link of Central Asian-, Russian-, and European rail systems with South Asia and the Persian Gulf. This link of the North-South Transnational Railway runs 137 km in Kazakhstan, 470 km in Turkmenistan and 70 km in Iran. Work in Turkmenistan commenced in Bereket in December 2007 and in Kazakhstan in July 2009, and was completed in late 2014.

In late 2016, a railway line from Kerki south to Ymamnazar on the border with Afghanistan and beyond to Aqina in Andkhoy District was opened. It is expected to become part of a railway corridor through northern Afghanistan. This line was subsequently extended to Andkhoy.

In February 2018, the existing rail line between Serhetabat and Torghundi in Afghanistan was restored to service. This line is planned to be extended to Herat, where it could potentially connect to a rail line under construction from Khaf, Iran.

Rolling stock

The Asian Development Bank reported in 2021,<blockquote>In 2019, TRA had a rolling stock fleet of 119 diesel locomotives, 10,056 freight wagons, and 425 passenger cars. The majority of locomotives and all the passenger cars were purchased from the PRC (25 CKD9A-series passenger locomotives and 83 CKD9C-series freight locomotives). The freight wagon fleet included 2,849 tanker wagons, 1,738 gondola wagons, 1,637 platform wagons, 1,358 closed hopper wagons, 1,143 box wagons and 654 refrigerated wagons.... In 2019, 6,607 wagons

(65% of the fleet) <nowiki>[were]</nowiki> at least 30 years old, with many of these wagons having exceeded their normal economic life and in need of replacement. As of 2001 Turkmenistan had an estimated 22,000 kilometers of roads, about 18,000 kilometers of which were paved. A sister project to link Türkmenbaşy and Ashgabat was suspended when the Turkish contractor, Polimeks, walked away from the project, reportedly because of non-payment.

As of 29 January 2019, the Turkmen Automobile Roads state concern () was subordinated by presidential decree to the Ministry of Construction and Architecture, and responsibility for road construction and maintenance was shifted to provincial and municipal governments. Operation of motor coaches (buses) and taxicabs is the responsibility of the Automobile Services Agency () of the Ministry of Industry and Communication. The Turkmen Automobile Roads state concern was upgraded to ministry status on 11 July 2025 by presidential decree.

Turkmenistan has one of the lowest gasoline prices in the world. In 2011 95-octane gasoline was priced at $0.72 per gallon ($0.19 per liter). As of March 2021, the state-controlled price was 1.50 manat per liter, or U.S. 43¢ per liter ($1.62 per gallon).

Seaways

Riverways

The main inland waterways are the Amu Darya River, which runs along the northern border, and the Karakum Canal, which runs from east to west from the Amu Darya near the Afghanistan border through Mary and Ashgabat to Bereket. Steamboats began plying the Amu Darya in 1888, with reassembly and launching of a Russian-built steamboat delivered to Çärjew in pieces. Navigation was hindered by the constantly shifting sandbars and islands that the river current formed and swept away.

In the mid-20th century Soviet authorities began construction of the Karakum Canal. The first phase was approved in 1952, and construction began in 1954. By 1959 in the first phase the canal had connected the Amu Darya to the Murghab River. In 1961 the canal was extended to the Tejen River in a second phase. A third phase, to bring water to Ashgabat, was accelerated due to the 1961 drought, and water from the Amu Darya was first delivered to the capital city on May 12, 1962. Next followed construction of the Gurtly and Köpetdag Water Reservoirs, and then came the fourth phase, extension of the canal as far as Bereket, which was completed in 1981. From Bereket, water is delivered to Balkanabat, Hazar and Turkmenbashy by pipeline. The 1,100-kilometer canal, designed mainly for irrigation, is navigable for 200 kilometers from the Amu Darya. The Amu Darya is navigable in Turkmenistan for about 320 kilometers downstream from the Afghanistan border to Turkmenabat.

Pipelines

Major ports and harbours

Turkmenistan's largest seaport by far is Turkmenbashy International Seaport. The port was opened in October 1896. The Merchant Seaport Authority was founded in 1903. The port was substantially reconstructed between 2000 and 2003. Passenger ferry service to the port of Baku, Azerbaijan as well as rail ferries to other ports on the Caspian Sea (Baku, Aktau) began in 1962. In recent years tanker transport of oil to the ports of Baku and Makhachkala has increased.

In May 2018 construction was completed of a major expansion of the Turkmenbashy seaport. Cost of the project was $1.5 billion. The general contractor for the project was Gap Inşaat, a subsidiary of Çalık Holding of Turkey. The expansion added 17 million tons of annual capacity, making total throughput including previously existing facilities of over 25 million tons per year. The international ferry and passenger terminals can serve 300,000 passengers and 75,000 vehicles per year, and the container terminal is designed to handle 400,000 TEU (20-foot container equivalent) per year. Turkmenbashy International Seaport includes a shipyard.

Smaller industrial loading terminals are located at Hazar (oil), Kiyanly () (plastics), and Garabogaz (urea).

In 2006 Turkmenistan had eight merchant marine vessels of more than 1,000 tons displacement, of which four were cargo ships, two were oil tankers, one was for refrigerated cargo, and one was a combination ore and oil ship.

External links

RAILWAY SECTOR ASSESSMENT FOR TURKMENISTAN, MARCH 2021 (Asian Development Bank)