Baku, Azerbaijan, May 27
By Emil Ilgar - Trend:
Iran prepared the ground to lay 130 kilometers out of 164 kilometers of the Qazvin-Rasht railway, Iran's Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi said May 26, the state-run IRINN TV reported.
He said the Qazvin-Rasht project is ready by 93 percent and will be completed by March 2017.
The Qazvin-Rasht railway will be linked to Azerbaijan through the Rasht-Astara railway project, to be financed with a $500-billion Azerbaijani credit, Iran says.
A special working group was created in Azerbaijan for implementation of the Rasht-Astara railway project.
The construction of the Rasht-Astara railway was discussed during a meeting between Azerbaijan's Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev and Vaezi on May 26.
Shahin Mustafayev is on an official visit to Iran.
The plan for transiting 10 million tons of goods per year from the Persian Gulf to Russia and the Black Sea, as well as to Europe, will be realized after launching the Rasht-Astara railway and connecting Qazvin to Astara through that railway.