Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.11
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran and Armenia plan to sign a memorandum of understanding to connect their railways.
Iranian deputy transport minister Ali Nourzad and his Armenian counterpart Artur Arakelyan met in Tehran to boost transit of goods and passengers through connecting their national railways, Iran's Fars news agency reported on November 11.
Arakelyan said some 300 kilometers of railway should be built in Armenia to be connected to Iran's railway network.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in August that Iran can play an important role in the transit of goods between Persian Gulf states and Central Asia through the North-South Corridor. "Given its location in the heart of trade corridors, Iran can play a special role in providing services to transit of commodities from the Persian Gulf littoral states to Central Asia," he added.
The North-South Corridor will link Uzen in Kazakhstan to Gyzylgaya-Bereket-Etrek in Turkmenistan and end at Gorgan in the Iranian province of Golestan. Then it will be connected to Iran's national rail network, making its way to the Persian Gulf ports.
The corridor will facilitate the transit of three to five million metric tons of cargo annually. In the future the figure could reach 12 million metric tons.