Geography of transport

In the years of independence great attention was paid to railway building and electrification; the length of railways exceeded 7 thousand km. Earlier, to go from Tashkent to Khorezm or Surkhandarya, and to the Fergana Valley, it was necessary to cross neighbouring states. Now routes inside the country have been built: Navoi–Uchkuduk–Nukus, Guzar–Boysun–Kumkurgan, and Angren–Pap, linking Tashkent with the Fergana Valley (through high mountains, by a long tunnel under the Kamchik pass). Electrification of trains raises speed and the capacity of lines. The high-speed Afrosiyob train has run on the Tashkent–Samarkand route since 2011 and later was introduced on routes to cities such as Bukhara and Karshi. Among roads, the Great Uzbek Highway (Tashkent to Termez), the Tashkent–Angren–Kokand road over the Kamchik pass and the Tashkent ring road (64 km) are important; international roads go to China (Andijan–Osh–Kashgar) and south (through Termez toward Afghanistan). River transport is mainly on the Amudarya, through the Termez river port. In air transport Tashkent is the biggest hub; there are airports in Samarkand, Bukhara, Urgench, Navoi and elsewhere, and Navoi is an international hub specialized in cargo. Pipelines go from the Bukhara and Kashkadarya gas fields to Samarkand and Tashkent. The high-voltage grid links the regions and neighbouring states.