Tehran, Iran, March 4
Trend:
Iran's Minister of Road and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami has discussed the process of railway construction in the country during the 7th meeting of the coordination council of International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC).
Speaking at the meeting he said that the INSTC coordination council meets after five years break with member countries where they would discuss the ways to facilitate the problems facing the corridor, Trend reports.
"One of the important issues is that the North South Corridor has not been using its capacities and the obstacles should be identified,” he noted.
He said the member-countries have considerable presence in the project. "The ministerial meeting coincide the inauguration of Qazvin-Rasht railway project on Wednesday that is part of International North South Transport Corridor that would be attended by the ministers in Rasht. The meeting would be a turning point for the corridor."
Speaking about progress achieved in the implementation of the project he said the corridor has three sectors, the infrastructures sector that should be provided by using more capacities, that were also used in the past and transported cargo from Iran to Central Asia and Caucasus, there have been important progress in infrastructures from the Bafgh –Bandar Abbas railway to Sarakhs and development of northern ports and Chabahar Port and establishing Rasht–Astara railway and the newly built roads."
"Iran is accomplishing the Chabahar-Zahedan railway, its connection to the railway network and to north and south neighbors would be an important part of the corridor,” he added.
“The second part is to create transit capacity for cargo transportation that is currently being transported independently by countries through corridor,” he said. "We should create logistic potentials to develop the corridor in all aspects.”
Speaking at the meeting Eslami said the expert’s responsibility is to review the software and hardware issues of the corridor. "I believe the leaders of the countries and members of the corridor would resolve the problems and facilitate the cargo transit that would promote the economic development in the region," he noted.
"Since I would attend the inauguration of the Qazvin – Rasht railway alongside the president on Wednesday I have the chance to welcome you here and ask you to review the issues and obstacles and create organizations that have multiple potentials to operate the transit," he added.
The Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway is 164 kilometers long, and is further connected to Anzali and Astara. Construction of the Rasht-Qazvin Railway Project has begun in 2006.
The Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway is part of the North-South Transport Corridor to connect Northern Europe and South Asia, including the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia.
Iran is hosting the 7th coordination council and the North South Corridor ministerial meeting in Tehran on March 4 -5.