On September 25, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a meeting on the priority tasks of reforming the railway sector.

Over the past seven years, the number of industrial enterprises in our country has grown to 110 thousand. The production of more than 2 thousand new types of products has been mastered. Last year, export volumes increased 1.6 times and reached $19 billion. As a result, cargo turnover in our country increased by 30 percent.

For countries such as Uzbekistan, which do not have direct access to the world’s oceans, the most convenient and cheapest transport is rail. But now only 5 percent of products on the domestic market and 45 percent of export goods are transported by rail. That is, Uzbekistan Temir Yollari JSC cannot compete with the transportation of goods by road.

For many years, the industry has not been reformed and a modern management system has not been introduced. At the same time, due to external factors, transportation and logistics costs have increased. As a result, both the income of the joint-stock company and the quality of services remain low.

In particular, the shortage of cars and the obsolescence of their fleet are pointed out. The current tariffs and management model make it difficult for the private sector to participate in the industry. The revenues of most stations do not cover expenses. The level of digitalization remains insufficient. The population is dissatisfied with the level of service at train stations, limited access to central stations, inconvenient location of parking lots, corruption in the sale of tickets, conditions and service in carriages.

After analyzing these problems, proposals for reforming the industry were discussed at the meeting.

Thus, it is planned to transform the Uzbekistan Railways joint-stock company into a holding company and introduce modern management into it, organize separate enterprises, dividing the functions of infrastructure maintenance, freight transportation and logistics, passenger transportation, and station management.

The head of our state approved these proposals and gave additional instructions to improve efficiency in the industry. The need to ensure transparent accounting and attract foreign specialists and investments to enterprises without state guarantees was emphasized.

It was decided to create attractive tariffs for the private sector and provide loans to entrepreneurs for the purchase of cars. The possibility of building modern shopping complexes around central stations and putting up space in the stations themselves for auction was indicated. Identified vacant areas around railway stations can be allocated for logistics and production projects.

The task has been set, together with the Ministry of Digital Technologies, to establish electronic registration of cargo documents, install GPS on wagons and launch an online warehouse based on the “single window” principle.

The importance of taking inventory of non-core assets of Uzbekistan Temir Yollari and directing funds from their sale to improve railway infrastructure was emphasized.

Due to the fact that most of the freight trains enter the capital and regional centers, the traffic intensity at the stations increases. In this regard, the need to consider the possibility of moving freight stations outside cities was pointed out. This will reduce freight traffic in cities and attract additional investment in areas.

The Transport Prosecutor is tasked with ensuring that all railway crossings are regulated for the safety of citizens and road traffic.

Issues of improving staff qualifications and quality of service were also raised.

The head of state emphasized that the result of reforming the sector should be the creation of a railway system that would satisfy the population and entrepreneurs.

Responsible persons presented a report on the issues discussed at the meeting

Based on materials from the website president.uz