Baku, Azerbaijan, June 11
By Dalga Khatinoglu, Farhad Daneshvar - Trend:
There is $25 billion worth investment opportunity in Iran's transportation projects that are to start within the next five years, says Ali Noorzad, deputy minister of roads and urban development of Iran.
"Iranian government allows financing $50 billion worth of projects in total," he told Trend June 10.
Noorzad, who is also the managing director at Iran's Construction & Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company, said Iran and Azerbaijan plan to establish a workgroup on transportation sector.
"In Iran there are more than 200 highly experienced companies that can be involved in Azerbaijani transport projects. Tens of Iranian companies will visit Baku in a month to review the Azerbaijani projects - both the ones underway and the new ones - and discuss cooperation on them," he added.
Noorzad earlier told Trend that Iran and the International Bank of Azerbaijan agreed on the generalities of issuing a $500-million loan for construction of the Rasht-Astara railway.
"The International Bank of Azerbaijan will issue a $500-million loan to this project, the generalities are agreed, but we are discussing the details and loan conditions right now," he added.
The Rasht-Astara section will be linked to Azerbaijan through the Astara (Iran) - Astara (Azerbaijan) railway, the construction of which is now underway.
The Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway is a part of the North-South transport corridor. The North-South international transport corridor will link Northern Europe and South-East Asia. It will serve as a bridge to connect the railways of Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia.
Initially, three to five million tons of cargos per year will be transported via the corridor, and the volume will increase to 10-12 million tons in the future, according to preliminary estimates.