Azerbaijan, Baku, 8 October / Trend corr. S.Aliyev/ On 8 October, representatives of the railways of Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran signed in Baku a protocol on the results of a meeting within implementation of the project on North-South railway.
The sides decided to establish a joint venture with an office in Moscow so that to draw in funds to create the North-South. A joint working group will be formed to attract cargo to the railway, to coordinate the tariffs, marketing and railway communication.
Russia will submit the outline feasibility study on Rasht-Astara (Iran)-Astara (Azerbaijan) railway by 20 October.
The project of North-South corridor envisages construction of a railway from Europe via Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran to India and the South-East Asian countries. The project requires over $400mln, with the essential work expected to be carried out in Iran which does not have any railway service to the Azerbaijani border. About $35-40mln is needed to carry out the project on the Azerbaijani territory.
Azerbaijan will construct the rest 8.5km plot of the road to the station in Astara (Azerbaijan) and will upgrade border and customs infrastructure. A border railway bridge is expected to be constructed. The project will be implemented on parity basis with Iran.
The forecast on cargo transport is expected at 5mln tons per year and will reach 10 or 15mln tons per year in future.
The next meeting on the project will take place in Moscow in the first half of November.
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