Five-hour journey to be cut to 2.5 hours! New toll highway connecting Tashkent and Samarkand to be built

The travel time by car from Tashkent to Samarkand could be cut in half. In the Urtachirchik district, with the participation of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the construction of a new toll highway connecting the two cities has been launched. Once the road is operational, travel time is expected to decrease from five hours to 2.5 hours.

The new route will be 282 kilometers long, with a total cost of nearly 2.2 billion dollars. Three lanes will be built in each direction. In flat areas, the permitted speed is expected to reach up to 150 kilometers per hour.

The highway will not be paved with ordinary asphalt but with monolithic concrete suitable for heavy and high-speed traffic. Along the road, 92 bridges, 28 overpasses, 60 tunnel crossings, and water drainage structures will be built.

Once the project is completed, up to 80,000 vehicles will be able to use the road per day. Consistent traffic flow is expected to reduce fuel and maintenance costs, lowering freight transportation prices by 19–24 percent. The road is scheduled to open in 2030.