The town of Bereket (formerly known as Kazanjyk) situated 300 kilometres west of Ashgabat witnessed an important event on 1 December. According to the information provided by the semi-official Turkmen Internet site turkmenistan.ru:

The official ceremony of launching the construction of the Uzen-Gyzylgaya-Bereket-Etrek-Gorgan transnational railway was held in Balkan province of Turkmenistan December 1. The ceremony was attended by Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, as well as by acting minister of transportation and communications of Kazakhstan Zhenis Kasymbekov and acting director of Iranian railways Hassan Ziyari.

The almost 700-kilometre railway route is going to link Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and probably also Russia. Starting in the Iranian city of Gorgan, it will run through the wastelands of the Balkan vilayat (province) and western Kazakhstan to the Kazakh town of Uzen (also known as Zhanaozen). It may be prolonged further to Astrakhan in Russia in the future. The agreement on the construction of the railway was signed last month during the summit of Caspian leaders in Tehran. The construction work began very quickly, so it is likely to be completed in the planned time frame (by December 2011).
The railway line will have the utmost strategic and economic significance for Turkmenistan, the Turkish Daily stresses:

The initial load capacity of the line would be 5 million tons of cargo annually, to be expanded up to 12 million tons by 2012. […] The railway link - part of the broader North-South corridor concept - would make Turkmenistan a hub of cargo and passenger movement in north-south and east-west directions. The rail link would also be instrumental in exploiting the non-hydrocarbon resources of Turkmenistan at Garabogazgol and Gyzylgaya.

The railway line is expected to handle not only cargo, but also passenger trains. This would be great news for the Turkmen, who have not been able to travel abroad by train since 1994 (when all railway links with other countries were closed). Reinstatement of a railway link between Turkmenistan and Russia would be especially important, because many Turkmen have relatives there and would like work or study in Russia, but cannot afford to travel by plane.

Construction of the line would also please globetrotters. It would make the travels through the wilderness stretching between Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan much easier. Today this route is only passable by jeep, which makes the passage along the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea very difficult. However, the thrill-seeking travellers will still have to wait a few years…