Proposals for the reform of the railway sector were considered

On September 25, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a meeting on 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, the volume of exports increased 1.6 times and reached $ 19 billion. As a result, cargo turnover in our country has increased by 30 percent.

For countries such as Uzbekistan that 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 cargo are transported by rail. That is, Uzbekistan Temir Yullari JSC cannot compete with the transportation of goods by road.

For many years, the industry has not been reformed, a modern management system has not been implemented. 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, it is indicated that there is a shortage of wagons and the obsolescence of their fleet. With the current tariffs and management model, it is difficult for the private sector to participate in the industry. The revenues of most stations do not cover the costs. 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 ticket sales, conditions and service in cars.

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

Thus, it is planned to transform the Uzbekistan Temir Yullari joint-stock company into a holding company and introduce modern management in it, organize separate enterprises, dividing the functions of infrastructure maintenance, cargo transportation and logistics, passenger transportation, 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, attract foreign specialists and investments to enterprises without state guarantees was emphasized.

It was decided to create attractive tariffs for the private sector, to allocate loans to entrepreneurs for the purchase of wagons. It is indicated that it is possible to build modern shopping complexes around the central railway stations, to put up for auction areas in the stations themselves. The identified vacant areas around railway stations can be allocated for logistics and production projects.

The task was set together with the Ministry of Digital Technologies to establish electronic registration of cargo documents, install GPS on wagons and launch an online warehouse on the principle of a "single window".

The importance of the inventory of non-core assets of Uzbekistan Temir Yullari and the allocation of funds from their sale to improve the 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 is increasing. In this regard, it is indicated that it is necessary to consider the possibility of transferring freight stations outside cities. This will reduce the movement of freight transport in cities and attract additional investment in the districts.

The Transport Prosecutor has been instructed to ensure the regularity of all railway crossings for the safety of citizens and road traffic.

The issues of professional development of personnel and quality of service were also touched upon.

The Head of State stressed that the result of reforming the sphere should be the creation of a railway system that would satisfy the population and entrepreneurs.

The responsible persons presented a report on the issues discussed at the meeting.