BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 6. Iran is making significant efforts to improve the western route of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), which passes through its territory, Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrdad Bazrpash said on X, Trend reports.
Bazrpash stated that work on the 175-kilometer railway line between Miyaneh and Ardabil is 92 percent complete. He added that this railway line features numerous tunnels and large bridges.
“With the allocation of financial resources, this railway line will be operational by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2025),” he said.
Construction of the railway line between Ardabil and Miyaneh began in 2005. The 175-kilometer line is being built in 11 sections, with 35 percent of the route traversing mountainous terrain. Once operational, the railway is expected to transport 2.5 million tons of cargo and 600,000 passengers in its first year. In 20 years, it is projected to handle 4 million tons of cargo and 1.5 million passengers annually.
The foundation of the North-South Transport Corridor was laid based on an intergovernmental agreement signed on September 12, 2000, by Russia, Iran, and India. The agreement was ratified by Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Oman, Russia, Tajikistan, Türkiye, and Ukraine. The goal of the corridor is to reduce transit times for goods from India to Russia and to Northern and Western Europe (the current transit time is over 6 weeks, while the North-South Corridor is expected to reduce it to 3 weeks).
To connect Azerbaijan Railways with the Iranian rail network within the corridor, the Kazvin-Rasht railway (175 km) was inaugurated on March 6, 2019. The Rasht-Astara railway must be constructed in Iran.
The North-South Corridor has three routes within Iran: the eastern route to Turkmenistan and Central Asia, the central route via the Caspian Sea to Russia and other countries, and the western route through Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, and Eastern Europe.
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