Working Groups on North-South International Corridor to Meet by 20 June
Azerbaijan, Baku, 10 June / Trend corr E. Ismayilov/ A trilateral meeting of working groups within the framework of the North-South transport corridor will be held by 20 June, the Azerbaijan State Railway reported on 10 June.
The meeting will discuss a project to construct the Gazvin-Resht-Astara ( Iran)-Astara ( Azerbaijan) railway track, expansion of trilateral cooperation and other issues.
The North-South transport corridor envisages the establishment of railway from Russian running via Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran and the Southeast Asian countries. Over $400mln is required to carry out this project and major part of the work is needed to be done in Iran, which does not have railway till the border with Azerbaijan. Definite work worth over $20mln needs to be done in Azerbaijan.
The work to be carried out in Azerbaijani territory is of a medium scale. An 8.5km road to Astara station ( Azerbaijan), a station with wheel-pair change systems and a border and customs infrastructure has to be constructed. In addition a border railway bridge must be built as well. The implementation of the project will be carried out in par with Iran.
In the initial stage, the cargo deliveries via this corridor are forecasted to comprise 5mln tons a year and further to increase to 10-15mln tons a year.
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