A consortium of Turkish companies will build Uzbekistan's first toll highway that will connect capital Tashkent to the historical city of Samarkand, Uzbek authorities have said.

The State Investment Committee of Uzbekistan recently revealed the details of the project in a statement.

According to the statement, Deputy Chairman of the committee Laziz Kudrarov and the officials of the Turkish consortium, Cengiz-Kolin-Kalyon, discussed the details of the project.

Officials from relevant Uzbek ministries and state institutions also attended the meeting, where the Turkish contractors presented their proposals on the project and exchanged views with the Uzbek authorities. They also revised a few issues with the highway route and focused on the minimization of the impacts of highway construction on agricultural lands, flatlands and the environment. Reports suggested that an agreement for the construction of the highway was reached during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's official visit to Uzbekistan in April.

The highway will be completed in 2019-2020. Once completed, the Tashkent-Samarkand route, which currently takes over 3.5-4 hours to complete, will come down to just 2 hours.