Tehran, Iran, Dec. 23
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Iran and Turkmenistan can become the transit hub of the region and even the whole world.
Iranian Ambassador to Ashgabat Seyed Mohammad-Mousa Hashemi Golpayegani said that both countries are among the safe paths of the region, Iran's Fars News Agency reported on Dec. 23.
"The two countries enjoy strategic geographic location and can provide an easy access to the Central Asian countries and Persian Gulf," he noted.
Golpayegani went on to note that Iran and Turkmenistan have several projects to expand bilateral trades.
"The Iran-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan railway can play an important role in boosting the bilateral trades between Tehran and Ashgabat," he said.
The Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway was inaugurated on Dec. 3.
Presidents of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran Nursultan Nazarbayev, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Hassan Rouhani attended the inauguration ceremony.
The agreement on the construction of the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway was signed in 2007, while construction work began in 2009.
The Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway is part of the North-South international transport corridor. A project, called the North-South, is being implemented on the basis of an agreement signed in 2007 by Turkmenistan, Iran and Kazakhstan.
The railway length is 925 kilometers in total, with 85 kilometers on Iran's territory, 700 on Turkmenistan's territory and the remaining 140 on Kazakhstan's territory.
The route links Uzen in Kazakhstan with Gyzylgaya-Bereket-Etrek in Turkmenistan and end at Gorgan in the Iranian province of Golestan. It is connected to Iran's national rail network, making its way to the Persian Gulf ports.
Preliminary estimates show that originally 3 to 5 million metric tons of cargos per year will be transported via this route. In the long term the transportation will increase to 10-12 million metric tons.
There can also be a modal redistribution of transit goods: a shift of freight from motor vehicles, sea or air transport to railway transport.
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