Historically, an issue on constructing the first railway in Mongolia was raised during the 19th century, and the very first railway put into use in 1938 in Mongolia.
Until very recent times, the railway transport service had been gradually developing based on just the domestic needs.
In the last years, Mongolia is facing a necessity to construct new railways and infrastructure in order to develop the country in the shortest possible time. For this, it is necessary to put its wealthy mineral resources such as iron ore, copper, uranium and coal into economic circulation
Matters on constructing new railways to neighboring countries as Russia and China and renovating the old railways have become an attention-getting topic not only in the neighbor countries but also in other countries. For example, the Mongolian mineral resources are expected to play a big role in satisfying the needs of raw materials for China whose economy is rapidly growing. So, the Chinese side has expressed its readiness to let its biggest companies participate in the great construction projects to be carried out in Mongolia.
Apart of China, the Russian side has been openly expressing its willingness to construct the Mongolian new railways and to renew the old railways in order to participate in the project on exploitation of Tavantolgoi mine which is one of the largest coal deposits in the world. Russia wants to finance new railways to be constructed in northern part of Mongolia.
It is not possible to put its strategically-important mineral deposits without constructing railways, thus it is urgent for Mongolia to improve its infrastructure. In the nearest future, the great construction of new railways is expected to intensify due to requirements of boosting the infrastructure.