The Baktu Port, located 12 kilometers southwest of Tacheng City in Xinjiang, with a history of over 260 years of trade, is ushering in a new historical moment. Not far away in Kazakhstan, bulldozers and cranes roar on the desert, and 120 mechanical equipment and 272 construction workers are working day and night on a 42 kilometer construction road. This is the construction site of the Baktu Ayaguz railway, which carries the mission of building a new freight channel between China and Kazakhstan.

Ha Fang held an on-site promotion meeting

On March 13, 2026, Janibek Tejanov, Deputy Minister of Transport of Kazakhstan, and Saezek Tolinbergen, Deputy Governor of Abay Oblast, jointly chaired a special on-site meeting to study and promote the construction of the Baktu Ayaguz railway project. The meeting focused on discussing the progress of project implementation and the coordination and cooperation among all parties involved. Tejanov emphasized the need to ensure the project is completed on schedule and requested that the participating parties maintain an efficient collaborative work mechanism.

272 people fought on a 42 kilometer stretch of road

The construction project of the Baktu Ayaguz railway has officially started on July 21, 2025. Currently, the total length of the construction section is 42 kilometers, with 120 sets of mechanical equipment and 272 construction personnel on site. The engineering survey work has been fully completed, and four worker camps have been built and put into use in sections such as Ayi, Shaoerpan, Urzar, and Bakt. The design documents are scheduled to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2026. Keywords: the Belt and Road news network, railway infrastructure

Complete and open up new channels by the end of 2027

The Baktu Ayaguz railway, with a total length of approximately 303 kilometers, is a double track railway planned to be completed and put into use by the end of 2027. Along the line, 11 stations, 68 bridges, and 355 culverts will be built. After the completion of the project, the cargo handling capacity between China and Kazakhstan is expected to increase from the current 28 million tons to about 48 million tons, effectively diverting the transportation pressure of Alataw Pass and Khorgos, and becoming a key link in connecting international railway channels.Editor/Gao Xue