As a landlocked country, Tajikistan has no ports and the majority of transportation is via roads, air, and rail. In recent years Tajikistan has pursued agreements with Iran and Pakistan to gain port access in those countries via Afghanistan. In 2009, an agreement was made between Tajikistan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan to improve and build a 1,300 km (810 mi) highway and rail system connecting the three countries to Pakistan’s ports. The proposed route would go through the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province in the eastern part of the country. And in 2012, the presidents of Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Iran signed an agreement to construct roads and railways as well as oil, gas, and water pipelines to connect the three countries.
The railroad system totals only 680 kilometres (420 mi) of track, all of it 1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in) broad gauge. The principal segments are in the southern region and connect the capital with the industrial areas of the Hisor and Vakhsh valleys and with Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Russia. Most international freight traffic is carried by train. The recently constructed Qurghonteppa–Kulob railway connected the Kulob District with the central area of the country.
In 2009 Tajikistan had 26 airports, 18 of which had paved runways, of which two had runways longer than 3,000 meters. The country’s main airport is Dushanbe International Airport, which as of April 2015 had regularly scheduled flights to major cities in Russia, Central Asia, as well as Delhi, Dubai, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Kabul, Tehran, and Ürümqi, amongst others. There are also international flights, mainly to Russia, from Khujand Airport in the northern part of the country as well as limited international services from Kulob Airport, and Qurghonteppa International Airport. Khorog Airport is a domestic airport and also the only airport in the sparsely populated eastern half of the country.
Tajikistan has one major airline (Somon Air) and is also serviced by over a dozen foreign airlines.
The total length of roads in the country is 27,800 kilometres. Automobiles account for more than 90% of the total volume of passenger transportation and more than 80% of domestic freight transportation.
In 2004 the Tajik–Afghan Friendship Bridge between Afghanistan and Tajikistan was built, improving the country’s access to South Asia. The bridge was built by the United States.
As of 2014 many highway and tunnel construction projects are underway or have recently been completed. Major projects include rehabilitation of the Dushanbe – Chanak (Uzbek border), Dushanbe – Kulma (Chinese border), and Kurgan-Tube – Nizhny Pyanj (Afghan border) highways, and construction of tunnels under the mountain passes of Anzob, Shakhristan, Shar-Shar and Chormazak. These were supported by international donor countries.
Flag of Tajikistan:
The national flag of Tajikistan was adopted in November 1992, replacing the flag of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic of 1953. The flag of Tajikistan is a horizontal tricolor of red, white and green with a width ratio of 2:3:2, charged with a crown surmounted by an arc of seven stars at the center. The tricolor preserves the choice of colors in the former Tajik Soviet flag, as well as the 1:2 proportions.
The flag of Tajikistan is a tricolour of red, white, and green. The red represents the unity of the nation as well as victory and sunrise. The red also serves as symbolism of the former Russian and Soviet eras, the workers, and the warriors who sacrificed their lives to protect the land. The white represents purity, morality, the snow and ice of the mountains, and cotton. The green represents the bountiful generosity of nature, fertile valleys, the religion of Islam, and the celebration of Novruz. Other interpretations of the colors state that the flag symbolically unifies the people of Tajik society, with the red stripe representing the manual labour class, the white stripe representing the intellectual worker class, and the green representing the agricultural class living in Tajikistan’s rural or mountainous regions.