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Turkmenistan offers China to build railway crossing Persian Gulf

Business Materials 25 June 2009 20:28 (UTC +04:00)

Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, June 25 / Trend , G.Hasanov/

Turkmenistan which became an initiator of beginning of the Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan-Iran railway construction with direct access to the Persian Gulf offered China to participate in implementing this project, the Altyn Asyr National TV reported on June 25.

The issue was raised during Turkmen President Gurbangulu Berdimuhammedov's meeting with Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang who is in Ashgabat with an official visit.

"The guest has received this proposal with a great interest," the message said. "Earlier, the same proposal was sounded for the Russian Railway company."

Economists stress that implementation of this project will enable to considerably make shorter the way from Russia and Kazakhstan to Europe and the Persian Gulf countries. The length of the railway will be 900 kilometers. Roughly 100 kilometers of the railway will be laid in Iran, 700 kilometers - Turkmenistan and 100 kilometers - Kazakhstan. The capacity of the railway will be 10 million tons of cargo per year.

Ashgabat and Astana noted importance of this steel main and in spring stated the necessity to speed up this construction. This fact was stressed in Berdimuhammedov's meeting with Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov which took place as part of the Tehran summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).

At that time, the parties emphasized that the North-South transport-communication corridor will be economically beneficial not only for its direct participants, but also for the region's countries. 

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