Kyrgyzstan to Build Railway Logistics Center with EBRD and EU Support

Kyrgyzstan’s national railway company, Kyrgyz Temir Jolu, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and the European Union have launched a project to build a modern railway logistics center at Ivanovka station, around 45 kilometers east of Bishkek. The parties agreed on the project during a July 1 meeting, with the EBRD committing grant support for the preparation of a feasibility study. According to Kyrgyz Temir Jolu, the planned logistics hub is expected to make freight transport more efficient and expand Kyrgyzstan’s transit capacity. The company said it would also improve conditions for international transport links. Ivanovka station is located on the railway line connecting Bishkek with Balykchy, a city on the western edge of Lake Issyk-Kul. Kyrgyzstan’s railway network remains relatively limited and largely based on Soviet-era infrastructure. Its main northern rail corridor currently runs from the Kazakh border through Bishkek to Balykchy. In June, Kyrgyzstan began construction of a new railway designed to extend rail access along the northern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul and strengthen Balykchy’s role as a transport hub. The new Balykchy-Tamchy-Cholpon-Ata railway will stretch 86 kilometers and pass through the village of Tamchy, home to Issyk-Kul International Airport. The line is expected to become part of a multimodal transport and logistics hub on the shore of Lake Issyk-Kul. The project adds to a wider series of railway and logistics initiatives centered on Balykchy. The city sits on a strategic corridor linking Bishkek with Naryn and the Torugart Pass. In May, Balykchy opened the new international trade and logistics center Altyn Logistic, aimed at improving transport links between China, Central Asia, and wider post-Soviet markets. Balykchy is also the starting point for the Balykchy-Kochkor-Kara-Keche railway, a 186-kilometer line under construction since 2022. That line is expected to connect the northern rail network with Kochkor and the Kara-Keche coal deposit in Naryn Region, one of the main coal supply sources for Bishkek’s thermal power plant. Officials in Kyrgyzstan have also linked the Balykchy-Kochkor-Kara-Keche line to plans to integrate it with the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, which is under construction. If completed, those projects would significantly raise Balykchy’s strategic importance as a railway junction connecting northern Kyrgyzstan with routes through Naryn, Jalal-Abad, and onward to Uzbekistan. Kyrgyzstan’s railway sector has shown steady growth in recent years. Official data show rail freight volumes reached 10 million tons in 2025, up 36% from around 7 million tons in 2021. Passenger traffic over the same period rose from 255,000 to 432,000, an increase of about 70%.