Transport and infrastructure in Turkmenistan
Our listing of the primary types of transport compares the infrastructure of Turkmenistan with the average of all countries in Asia. The main traffic and transport routes are in good condition, but do not reach the level of the leading industrial nations.In terms of the length of its rail network, Turkmenistan ranks 14th in the world with 0.81 meters per inhabitant. In total, the rail network is 5,113 kilometers long. Freight traffic on the rails most recently totaled 13.33 billion tons and kilometers traveled. Passenger traffic reached 2.34 billion passenger-kilometers in 2017.
The waterways and ports listed refer to inland traffic on rivers and canals, as there is no direct access to the sea in Turkmenistan.
› Airports in Turkmenistan
Back to overview: Turkmenistan
Road traffic
The network of roads and highways has a total length of 58,592 km. For each of the country's 6.34 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 9.24 meters. This puts Turkmenistan in 58th place in the global ranking. However, it is also important to note that the country's population density is very low at around 13 inhabitants per km². In this case, disproportionately long distances generally have to be covered to reach the more remote parts of the country.With an average of 897 traffic fatalities per year (2013 - 2019), road traffic in Turkmenistan is considered reasonably safe. This corresponds to 15.2 accident fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year. By comparison, this figure is 12.3 in the USA and 17.0 worldwide.
In Turkmenistan, traffic drives on the right-hand side of the road, i.e. people drive in the right-hand lane and overtake on the left. Oncoming traffic comes toward you on the left side. Here you can also find an overview of all countries with left-hand traffic.
Turkmenistan | |||
total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
---|---|---|---|
Roadways | 58,600 km | 9,238.94 km | 120.04 m |
Railroads | 5,100 km | 806.23 km | 10.48 m |
Waterways | 1,300 km | 204.99 km | 2.66 m |
Commercial harbors | 73 | 11.51 | 0.000 |
Airports | 6 | 0.95 | 0.012 |
Asia | |||
total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
---|---|---|---|
Roadways | 16,613,000 km | 3,524.24 km | 519.50 m |
Railroads | 280,000 km | 59.41 km | 8.76 m |
Waterways | 260,300 km | 55.21 km | 8.14 m |
Commercial harbors | 45,998 | 9.76 | 0.001 |
Airports | 1,012 | 0.21 | 0.000 |
Data sources used
• Global Health Observatory Data Repository (World Health Organization)• UNCTAD
• Internation Union of Railways (UIC)
• CIA Factbook
• OECD Statistics
• Wikipedia (german)