China and Tajikistan Sign Feasibility Protocol for Pamir Road Reconstruction: 90km Murghab-Kulma Section to Be Backed by a Chinese Grant, With Work Planned From 2027
Tajikistan's Ministry of Transport announced on October 30 that Transport Minister Azim Ibrohim and Sun He, Economic and Commercial Counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Dushanbe, had signed a protocol on October 29 to carry out a feasibility study for reconstructing the Murghab-Kulma highway. The 90-kilometre road runs across the Pamir Mountains in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region to the Kulma-Qarasu crossing below the Kulma Pass, Tajikistan's only official land crossing with China, opened in 2004, with the pass at 4,365 metres.
The ministry said the reconstruction will be financed by a Chinese grant and that construction is expected to begin in 2027. It did not disclose the cost, a completion date or a contractor. The project was earlier listed at 67 kilometres and an estimated 78 million dollars; it had been expanded to 90 kilometres by September 2026, so the earlier estimate cannot simply be applied to the full 90-kilometre scheme.
The road forms part of a proposed China-Tajikistan-Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Türkiye-Europe multimodal corridor. The signing covers only the feasibility study: no construction has started and no road has opened under this project, and reconstruction of the wider Dushanbe-Khorog-Kulma highland route remains unfinished.
(Source: Ministry of Transport of Tajikistan)
Source: Ministry of Transport of Tajikistan
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：塔吉克斯坦帕米尔高原上的穆尔加布镇，穆尔加布至库尔马公路的起点一带（CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons）。 / Photo: The town of Murghab in Tajikistan's Pamir Mountains, near the start of the Murghab-Kulma road (CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons).
