Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan agreed on a method to set tariffs for rail transit between the three countries.
Heads of railways of Iran, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan met in Tehran and decided that transit of goods from Kostanay in Kazakhstan to Bandar Abbas in Iran to be carried out in ten days, Iran's Mehr news agency reported on Feb. 15.
Mohsen Pourseyed Aqaei, Head of Iranian Railways, suggested a $120 tariff to be set for transiting goods from Kostanay to Bandar Abbas.
However, a joint working group will meet in Kazakhstan two weeks later to finalize a tariff for transiting goods from Kazakhstan to Iran.
On Dec. 3, The Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway was inaugurated during a ceremony with participation of the heads of three states.
The 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.
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.