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Iran's Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway to connect North Europe to Southeast Asia

Business Materials 23 April 2014 12:06 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr.23

By Fatih Karimov - Trend:

Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway in Iran, being a part of the bigger North-South corridor, will connect North Europe to Southeast Asia.

Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway, with a length of 375km, is intended to connect Iranian railway system to Azerbaijan and Russia, Fars news agency quoted Iranian Railways Company's managing director Mohsen Pourseyed Aqaei as saying on April 23.

The Qazvin-Rasht section with a length of 205km has already been completed, he noted.

The railway is currently the missing link in the North-South corridor, which, when completed, will extend from Northern Europe to Southeast Asia, he added.

The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) was established in 2000 by Iran, Russia and India in order to promote transportation cooperation among the members.

Later Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, Oman, Syria and Bulgaria joined the corridor.

The corridor joins Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea through Iran and then reaches to St. Petersburg and North Europe via Russia.

On January 10, ISNA quoted Masoud Nasrazadani, an official with Iranian Railways Company as saying the Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway project is complete by 84 percent.

The railway is estimated to carry 1.4 million passengers and 5-7 million tons of cargo per year, he added.

Trains of up to 160 kilometers speed per hour will be used in the project, he noted.

On December 13, ISNA quoted Deputy Director of the Iranian Transportation Infrastructures Development Company, Hossein Nazadar, as saying that the Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway project has been grappling with a budget deficit.

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