The contract to manage the Hairatan-Mazar-e-Sharif railway was signed with a Kazakhstani company called Mansour Fatih.

The company will manage technical issues for the railway.

"We pay this company (more than) $4.1 million annually.

We were paying $15 million to the Sogdiana Trans, and the Sogdiana Trans company from Uzbekistan was only providing us service for 22 kilometers, only in Hairatan port. This new company will provide service for 106 kilometers," said Bakht Rahman Sharafat, acting head of the Afghanistan railway authority.

The deputy head of the Fatih Company, Bisn Bai Makhanov, said that they would increase the number of employees based on capacity.

"We have earned this contract through bidding," he said.

 Afghanistan is connected via the Hairatan-Aqina and Khwaf-Herat railways to the Central Asian countries of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan as well as to Iran.

Afghanistan is also considered a trade hub between South Asia and Central Asia.