Uzbekistan: TRANSPORTATION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Overview: Because of low investment and poor maintenance, Uzbekistan’s overland transportation infrastructure has declined significantly in the post-Soviet era. Air transport is the only branch that has received substantial government investment in the early 2000s, as airport modernization projects have been undertaken.

Roads: In 2002 Uzbekistan had 84,400 kilometers of roads, of which about 72,000 kilometers were paved. The road infrastructure is deteriorating, particularly outside of Tashkent. No significant highway projects were underway in 2005.

Railroads: In 2004 Uzbekistan had 3,950 kilometers of railroad lines, of which about 620 kilometers were electrified. A large percentage of the system’s track requires major repair. The main line is the portion of the Transcaspian Railroad that connects Tashkent with the Amu Darya. No significant rail projects were underway in 2005. The city rail line of Tashkent, the only such line in Central Asia, is 47 kilometers long.

Ports: Landlocked Uzbekistan has no seaports. Its main river port is Termez on the Amu Darya. Although Termez lacks modern facilities and has a shortage of spare parts, activity there has increased as conditions in neighboring Afghanistan have stabilized. Termez is an important transfer point for humanitarian supplies entering Afghanistan.

Inland Waterways: Uzbekistan has 1,100 kilometers of inland waterways. Since the mid-1990s, commercial travel on Uzbekistan’s portion of the Amu Darya has been reduced because of low water levels.

Civil Aviation and Airports: In 2004 Uzbekistan had 33 airports with paved runways, of which five had runways longer than 3,000 meters. The largest of them, at Tashkent, is linked with European and Middle Eastern cities by direct flights of Aeroflot, Lufthansa, Transaero, and Turkish Airlines, and with New York and Los Angeles via connecting flights through Moscow. The national airline, Uzbek Havo Yollari (Uzbekistan Airlines), flies mainly within the former Soviet Union. Fuel shortages often disrupt flight schedules from Uzbekistani airports.

Pipelines: In 2004 Uzbekistan had 9,149 kilometers of natural gas pipelines, 869 kilometers of oil pipelines, and 33 kilometers of pipelines for refined products.

Telecommunications: In the early 2000s, Uzbekistan’s telephone system was in poor condition, and in 2005 there were only 7.4 main lines per 100 population. A government program, begun in 1994 and scheduled for completion in 2010, would modernize the system by adding digital exchanges and expanding to provide 13 main lines per 100 population. Technical support for that program is provided by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency. Substantial progress has been made in Samarqand and Tashkent, where there were 24 lines per 100 population in 2001, but as the rural population rose, the overall line-to-user ratio remained the same between 1994 and 2001. Digital telecommunications, which totaled 935,000 lines in 2005, are located almost exclusively in urban areas. In 2005 an estimated 1 million mobile telephones, using six cellular networks, were in use. In 2005 an estimated 811,000 people were using the Internet, compared with 7,500 in 2000. The number of Internet service providers also increased very rapidly between 2001 and 2005. In 2005 Uzbekistan adopted a new telecommunications and information transfer program to accelerate development through 2010.

The state-run Republic of Yemen Television and Republic of Yemen Radio operate the country’s television and radio networks, respectively. According to the U.S. government, as of 1998 Yemen had six AM, one FM, and two shortwave radio broadcast stations and seven television broadcast stations, plus several low-power repeaters.

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