Baku, Tehran working on technical aspect of Rasht-Astara project – Iran official
By Trend
Director General of International Affairs Office with the
Islamic Republic of Iran Railways, Abbas Nazari, said Iran and
Azerbaijan are working on the technical details of Rasht-Astara
railway project.
Iran and Azerbaijan recently signed a joint venture agreement to
construct Rasht-Astara railway in the presence of the two
countries’ economy ministers, Nazari told the Trend.
Baku has allocated a loan worth $500 million for the construction
of the railway and both sides are now working on the technical
details of the contract, he added.
The two countries are working on a roadmap to determine all the
details related to the construction of the railway, Nazari
said.
The Rasht-Astara-Qazvin railway project envisages the construction
on the territory of Iran of a new railway line connecting
Azerbaijan's Astara to the Iranian cities of Astara, Rasht and
Qazvin.
Nazari further said that the construction of the Astara-Astara
Railroad, which is part of the Rasht-Astara project, is finalized
and that cargoes, mostly wheat and MDF (the Medium Density
Fiberboard) panels, are being transferred through the International
North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) from Moscow.
The Astara-Astara Railroad runs 8 kilometers in Azerbaijan up to
the border from where it extends 2 km to Iran’s port city of
Astara.
Qazvin-Rasht is a missing link in INSTC, which will connect Iran
with Russia’s Baltic ports and give Russia rail connectivity to
both the Persian Gulf and the Indian rail network.
This means goods could be carried from Mumbai to the Iranian port
of Bandar Abbas and further to Baku. They could then pass across
the Russian border into Astrakhan before proceeding to Moscow and
St. Petersburg, before entering Europe.
The corridor would substantially cut the travel time for everything
from Asian consumer goods to Central Eurasia’s natural resources to
advanced European exports.
When completed, the INSTC is expected to increase the volume of
commodities currently traded between Iran and Azerbaijan from
600,000 tons to 5 million tons per year, dramatically increasing
bilateral trade from the current $500 million per year.
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