In a meeting between deputy ministers of transport from Uzbekistan and Japan, the potential involvement of Japan in a project to connect the new international airport in Tashkent with metro and railway lines was discussed. According to the ministry's press service, the negotiations covered the development of transport infrastructure and the expansion of bilateral cooperation.
Specifically, proposals were reviewed to link the New Tashkent and Tashkent city areas with the new airport via railway, underground, and surface metro lines. Additionally, views were exchanged on prospects for modernizing the high-speed Tashkent-Samarkand railway line, separating rail infrastructure to efficiently organize passenger and freight traffic, and implementing investment projects in the transport sector.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the sides noted their readiness to further develop cooperation in transport and logistics between Uzbekistan and Japan, implement joint projects, and consistently strengthen mutually beneficial ties. These agreements may be linked to investments by the Japanese trading house Sojitz, which is purportedly contributing "tens of billions of yen" to the project.
The New Tashkent International Airport is being constructed on a 1,300-hectare site in the O‘rta Chirchiq and Quyi Chirchiq districts of Tashkent Region, with construction having commenced in October 2025. The project is being implemented under a public-private partnership model, with private partners including Vision Invest (Saudi Arabia), Sojitz (Japan), and Incheon International Airport Corporation (Republic of Korea).
The airport construction is part of developing a multimodal transport center, which will be directly connected to the Tashkent-Samarkand, Tashkent-Andijan, and Tashkent-Bo‘stonliq highways. A modern railway station for high-speed train services is expected to be built here, while the centers of Tashkent and New Tashkent will be linked via shuttle transport services. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev later announced plans to build a metro line to the new airport, stating, "This is the crossroads of Tashkent and Tashkent Region. It can be reached in a maximum of 25 minutes—just 24 km. We will organize a shuttle bus, and in the future, God willing, we will also build a metro."
Source: www.gazeta.uz