The Tashkent underground

The Tashkent metro today is one of the main attractions of the capital, consists of four branches and is the fourth among all the republics of the former Soviet Union in length. The history of the beginning of its construction is inextricably linked with the terrible earthquake of 1966. 

After the earthquake, engineers, architects and builders were sent to Tashkent from all the Union republics to restore the dilapidated city. Then new quarters and residential areas were rebuilt, and some of the specialists who arrived decided to settle permanently in the capital of the Uzbek SSR. In connection with these events, the population of the city was rapidly increasing and urban ground transport could not cope with the loads. The government decided to build a subway only in cities with millions of people, and Tashkent has just crossed this mark.

The construction of the Tashkent metro began in 1968 and it started from the Peoples' Friendship Square, the Chilanzar branch, since it was in the Chilanzar district of Tashkent that the population density was the highest. The construction was accompanied by difficulties, which were determined by the characteristics of the soil, and of course the metro was built taking into account the high seismic activity of the region. And on November 6, 1977, the head of the republic, Sharaf Rashidov, inaugurated and began operating the first branch of the metro. 

Metro in numbers. The Tashkent metro became the seventh in a row in the USSR, and the first in Central Asia. By length, it occupies 68th place in the world and 4th place among the republics of the former USSR. In total, the metro is represented by 4 lines, with a total length of 59.5 km, and includes 43 aboveground, ground and underground stations. Among all the metro lines there are 3 bridges across the Tashkent canals, 2 of which are on the Chilanzar line, and 1 on the Yunusabad line. The metro lines are connected by four transfer stations. For the longest time since its launch, the metro did not work from March 22 to August 15, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Each metro station is unique in its own way. Domes and mosaics at the Alisher Navoi station, majolica at the Pakhtakor station, an atypical platform at the Shakhristan station, a passage at the Minguryuk station resembling spacecraft docking stations, portraits at the Cosmonauts metro station, the ground lobby of the Chorsu and Pakhtakor stations, the lobby above the Tinchlik station – all these features and not only them will not leave a single person indifferent. Perhaps it will seem ordinary and everyday for residents of the capital, whose eye has already become accustomed to the metro environment, however, guests of the capital always inspect all stations of the Tashkent metro with great pleasure and interest.