The Central Asia-China natural gas pipeline's annual export capacity will reach 55-60 billion cu m by 2015, media reported August 26, quoting a China National Petroleum Corporation company newspaper (China Petroleum Daily). That figure would almost double the current estimated 2012 export capacity of 30 billion cu m. The pipeline, since it began operating at the end of 2009, has delivered 13.8 billion cu m of gas to China, according to China Petroleum Daily. It extends about 7,000km through Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and China. To meet the capacity expansion goal, workers are scheduled to finish construction of a third branch of the pipeline in 2013, Russia's EnergoNius reported.

Freight services have started on Afghanistan's first major railway. Under a three-year agreement, Uzbekistan's national railway company (UTY) is operating the 75 km, 1,520 mm gauge line, which it built at a cost of US$165m using funding from the Asian Development Bank. The line starts at the Hairatan freight terminal on the Afghan side of the Uzbek border, which handles around half of Afghanistan's imports and is served by a Soviet-built rail spur dating from the early 1980s.  It then crosses empty steppe to a freight terminal near Mazar-e-Sharif airport. The Hairatan to Mazar-e-Sharif link is part of the Central Asia Regional Economic Co-operation (CAREC) Programme. Although the road between the two centres has been improved, it cannot meet national and regional traffic needs, according to the ADB.  Freight capacity at Hairatan reached its limit of 4,000 tons of cargo a month years ago, yet the flow of goods from Central Asia to Afghanistan is projected to rise to 25,000-40,000 tons a month over the next At a later stage, the railway network will be extended to Herat in the west and Tajikistan in the east. The railway will primarily service commercial and non-military cargo. UTY was appointed to operate the line as its only international connection is through Uzbekistan. In addition, Afghanistan lacks an indigenous rail industry which means it will take some time to train local operations and maintenance staff.  The war-torn country's only other main line railway is a short spur across the border from Turkmenistan. Although an Iranian-funded 1,435 mm gauge line is under construction from Iran to Herat, and a north-south line to serve the Aynak copper mining development is also being studied by Chinese mining.