Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov.12 / Trend T.Jafarov, E.Ismayilov /
Plans for 2013 include completing the construction of the Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway, Iranian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mohsen Pak Ayeen told Trend on Monday.
He said the railway project that will connect the Qazvin city with the ports of Anzali and Astara, and these ports with the Caspian countries and Eastern Europe's countries, will be safe corridor for transport of passengers and goods. Length of the railway is 205 kilometers, and the length of the railway line between Qazvin and Rasht - 164 kilometers.
At present, four contracting companies are involved in the construction of this railway. Some 82 bridges with a total length of nine kilometers, 53 tunnels with a total length of 22 kilometers will be built within the Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway project, he said.
"So far, 75 percent of the work has been done as part of the construction of the railway. We hope that within the next year we will complete the rest of this project," Pak Ayeen said.
The Rasht - Astara (Iran) - Astara (Azerbaijan) railway line construction project is of great importance for the development of the international transport corridor "North - South". The commodity market is estimated at 25-26 million tons by 2015. A significant part of the "North - South" corridor stretches through Russian railways.
Creating a direct rail link to the west coast of the Caspian Sea can significantly affect the growth of the transportation in the region and become a good stimulus for the expansion of foreign economic relations of these countries with the European countries.