Azerbaijan, Baku, April 18 / Trend S.Isayev, T. Jafarov/
Construction of the Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway will be wrapped up by March of 2014, Iranian Deputy minister of roads and city planning Ahmad Sadeghi said, ILNA reported.
Sadeghi added that thus far, the construction of the railway is 67 percent finished. He noted that the railway route is a complex one, having 22 tunnels and 15 special bridges.
He noted that of those 22 tunnels, the construction of 15 of them has been completed by 70 percent.
Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway is a part of the North-South transport corridor implemented by Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran.
Investments worth $400 million have been made in the construction of the railway. Investments were planned to be drawn at the expense of banks of project member countries, as well as from other regional financial institutions.
During the preliminary years the volume of freight transportation via the railway is projected at six million tons a year, with a subsequent increase in the volume of freight to 20 million tons per year.