Tehran, Iran, Nov. 24
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Deputy Director of Iran's Construction & Development of Infrastructures Transportation Company (CDITC) Seyed Masoud Nasr Azadani said that some 1.3 trillion rials (some $40.6 based on the exchange rate of US dollar at the free market) have been invested in Gorgan-Inche Borun railway project.
"The project will be inaugurated in 10 days," he said, Iran's IRNA News Agency reported on Nov. 24.
"The railroad aims at transferring 14 million metric tons of goods annually," he explained.
Deputy Manager of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (IRIR) Hossein Ashouri said on March 8 that Iran's railway will be connected to Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the near future.
Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan railway is a part of the North-South international transport corridor.
The railway could triple annual trade between Iran and Kazakhstan to $3 billion.
Kazakhstan Ambassador to Tehran Baghdad Amiriyev said the railway is projected to be inaugurated by Dec.6, Iran's IRIB reported Nov.24.
In 2007, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan signed an agreement to construct the North-South Transnational Corridor.
The route will link Uzen in Kazakhstan with Gyzylgaya-Bereket-Etrek in Turkmenistan and end at Gorgan in the Iranian province of Golestan. Then it will be connected to Iran's national rail network, making its way to the Persian Gulf ports.
Kazakhstan was the 18th biggest importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2014, according to the Iran Customs Administration.
Iran exported $209.6 million of non-oil goods to Kazakhstan and imported $83.8 million of non-oil goods from the country.
The "North-South" 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.