BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
Iran has reached agreements with neighboring and regional countries, including Azerbaijan, Pakistan, India, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in the field of transit and cargo transportation, over the past four months, Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Rostam Ghasemi said, Trend reports citing Iranian media.
The minister emphasized that if Iran improves its domestic infrastructure, there are change to gain big revenues from railroad transit. According to Ghasemi, these revenues will be substantial.
Ghasemi added that Iran is focusing on construction of railways in major transit corridors, including the Rasht-Astara, Chabahar-Sarakhs and Shalamcheh-Basra railway lines.
“Iran has already kicked off the construction of Rasht-Astara and Chabahar-Sarakhs railway lines," he said. "In addition, Iran and Iraq will sign soon a contract on the construction of the Shalamcheh-Basra railway line.”
The minister noted that some time ago, a test cargo was transported from India to Finland within the North-South Corridor. As for Iran, the cargo was transported from the Iran's Shahid Rajaee port to the Rasht city by railroad, from there to Iran's Astara city by trucks.
“Despite the fact that the transshipment of cargo took some time, the cargo reached its destination within 21 days. However, if the cargo was to be transported by sea, it would have taken at least 3 months,” he said.
A total of 8.1 million tons of cargo were transited through Iran, during the first 8 months of the current Iranian year (March 21 through November 21, 2021), which is an increase of 80 percent, compared to the same period last Iranian year.
The purpose of creating a corridor is to reduce the delivery time of cargo from India to Russia, as well as to North and West Europe. Delivery time on the current route is more than 6 weeks, it is expected to be reduced to 3 weeks via North-South Transport Corridor.
The route of the North-South corridor in North Europe - Russia and West Europe - Russia, and in three directions:
Caucasus - Persian Gulf (West route);
Central Asia - Persian Gulf (East route);
Caspian Sea - Iran - Persian Gulf (Central route).
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