At the CIET-2024 international conference, Vladimir Petruk, managing director of Interbudmontazh company, announced that Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat, may see a metro system built by 2035, according to the Times of Central Asia.

Petruk shared that experts from Japan’s Sumitomo, the Japanese Subway Association, and the German consulting group K2 have examined the city’s geological and seismic conditions, concluding that constructing a subway with reinforced concrete is feasible.

The proposed Ashgabat metro would provide an environmentally friendly solution to the city’s growing transportation needs. The network could eventually link Ashgabat with the “smart city” Arkadag and nearby settlements Geokdepe and Anau, enhancing regional connectivity. Petruk highlighted that the metro could alleviate Ashgabat’s transportation challenges by offering a sustainable alternative to the city’s rising number of vehicles.

“The metro will become essential to solve the city’s transportation problems, given the growing wealth and increasing number of cars,” Petruk said, referencing the success of metro systems in other seismically active regions.

Discussions with Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Construction and Architecture are ongoing, and the United Nations mission is expected to collaborate with the country to support urban infrastructure development.

While Turkmenistan currently lacks a metro system, the idea has been under consideration since 2008, when Ashgabat’s city administration first engaged firms from St. Petersburg for the project. In 2014, former President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov tasked Interbudmontazh with assessing the project’s feasibility, and in 2020, the company, in partnership with Sumitomo and K2, presented a preliminary plan. However, specific dates for the beginning of construction and project completion have yet to be finalized.