TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia agreed on a plan for the implementation of the North-South railway network.


The agreement was reached in a meeting between the heads of the railway companies of Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan on the sidelines of the 60th Meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Rail Council in Kazakhstan on Saturday.

During the trilateral meeting, Managing Director of Russia's Railways Vladimir Yakunin and his Iranian and Azeri counterparts came to the conclusion to entrust the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway on the Russian company.

Also on the basis of the agreement, Azerbaijan's Railway Company will construct the railway from Iran-Azerbaijan border to the first railway station inside Azerbaijan.

During the meeting, Managing Director of the Iranian Railway Company Mohsen Pour-Seyedaqaei and his Russian counterpart also discussed implementation of six rail projects.

The CIS Rail Transport Council was established in 1992 as a coordinating body of the railway administrations of the CIS.

The Council is made up of rail transport administration and management body chiefs.

The project envisages the connection of Azerbaijani and Iranian railway systems with the help of Qazvin-Rasht-Astara (Iran)-Astara (Azerbaijan).

Qazvin-Rasht-Astara (Iran)-Astara (Azerbaijan) railway project has a great importance for the development of "North-South" international transport corridor the commodity market of which is estimated at 25-26 million tons by 2015. The significant part of "North-South" corridor runs through Russia's railway.

The length of Rasht-Astara -Qazvin railway is 205 kilometers, and the length of the railway line between Qazvin and Rasht is 164 kilometers.

Some 82 bridges with a total length of nine kilometers, 53 tunnels with a total length of 22 kilometers will be built within the Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway project.

Creating a direct rail link to the West coast of the Caspian Sea can significantly affect the growth of the transportation in the region and become a good stimulus for the expansion of foreign economic relations of these countries with the European countries.

By Fars News Agency

 

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