Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 7 / Trend /
Representatives of the railway authorities of Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran will meet in Tehran on Feb. 7-8. The sides will discuss issues of a joint venture for the construction of the railway line Qazvin-Rasht-Astara (Iran)-Astara (Azerbaijan), which is part of the North-South transport corridor," Azerbaijan Railways said on Monday.
Azerbaijan Railways Head Arif Askerov will attend the meeting.
Iranian Railways' International Department Head Abbas Nazari said earlier that the heads of the three countries' railway departments will sign an agreement on a joint venture for a railway construction project on Feb. 7. The authorized capital of the joint venture will amount to $3 million, respectively one million per participant.
The scope of work in Azerbaijan envisages the construction of a 8.5-kilometer-long railway to the Astara station with systems of changing wheel pairs, a bridge, and border and customs infrastructure. This project will be implemented on a parity basis with Iran.
Transportation of goods along the North-South corridor is predicted at 5 million tons per year in the first phase, and the volume is planned to increase to 10-15 million tons per year in the future.