Kazakhstan, Astana, Feb. 12 / Trend, D. Mukhtarov /
Kazakhstan - Turkmenistan - Iran railway should open in the spring, by the summer of this year, Ambassador of Iran in Astana Gorban Seifi told Trend.
"Kazakhstan - Turkmenistan - Iran railway should open in the next few months in the spring, by the summer of this year," - said Seifi at the diplomatic reception on the occasion of the 34th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, which took place on Monday in the capital of Kazakhstan.
According to him, with the commissioning of the railway the trade turnover between the two countries will seriously increase.
"If at the end of last year, trade between the two countries totaled $ 1.2 billion, in the future will increase to five billion dollars a year", - diplomat said.
It was reported earlier that the transcontinental line must be the bridge between Europe and Asia. In April 2011, a document on the construction of an international transit transport route Iran-Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Oman-Qatar was signed in Ashgabat.
Intergovernmental agreement on the project "North-South" was signed in 2007 between Kazakhstan, Iran and Turkmenistan. The planned volume of traffic on the route will not be more than 10 million tons a year.
The project will open to countries in Asia and Europe access to the Persian Gulf and Central Asia. Similar opportunities will also appear for the transit of goods from countries in South-East and South Asia, the Indian Ocean coast to the states of Eastern and Northern Europe via Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Russia.
This path is several times shorter than overcoming the Suez Canal. The railway will play a huge role in the desert areas of social infrastructure in the Caspian region and the Northern Territory - from the border with Kazakhstan to Bereket.