Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 7
By Khalid Kazimov – Trend:
Rasht-Qazvin railroad in northern Iran which is a small but crucial part of the North-South transportation corridor is expected to be inaugurated over the next month.
Jabarali Zakeri, the deputy head of Iran’s railways for construction and development has said that the operation for placing rails along the Rasht-Qazvin segment will be completed over the current fiscal year (ending March 20), IRIB news agency reported.
According to the official, the constructors have almost completed the 165 kilometer long segment and only 12 kilometers remain which will be completed by March 20.
The International North-South Transport Corridor is meant to connect Northern Europe with Southeast Asia. It will serve as a link connecting the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia. At the initial stage, it is planned to transport 5 million tons of cargo per year through the corridor and over 10 million tons of cargo in future.
In order to complete the mega project of the North-South Corridor, three railroad segments connecting the northwestern city of Qazvin to the border city of Astara should be constructed inside Iran.
The first segment is Qazvin-Rasht, which, according to Iranian officials, is almost completed and expected to be inaugurated over the current Iranian calendar year.
The second segment connecting the cities of Rasht and Astara is expected to be constructed within three years with the financial aid of Azerbaijan.
In the meantime the sides are expected to utilize the Astara-Astara segment, which will connect the two border cites of the same name in Iran and Azerbaijan in near future.