Azerbaijan , Baku, March 28 / Trend, A.Yusifzade /

The North-South railway line between Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan would be operational by October 2011, IRNA reported the interim head of the Iranian Ministry of Roads and Transport Ali Nikzad as saying.

Nikzad said the primary agreement on the construction of the rail link between Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan was signed by presidents of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan in April 2007 in Turkmenistan and its final agreement was signed by the three presidents at a summit in Tehran in September of the same year.

The total route of the railway is about 900 kilometers, of which 80 kilometers would pass through Iran, 700 kilometers - Turkmenistan and 120 kilometers - Kazakhstan, Nikzad said.

The railway facilitates the transportation of goods from the Central Asian countries to the Persian Gulf.

Launching the international railway will shorten more than 600 km of the route for transporting goods from the Central Asia to the Persian Gulf and the route will turn into one of the most important international transportation link between China and Europe.

Early Iranian Minister of Road and Transportation Hamid Behbahani said nearly 5,000 kilometers of rail lines are currently under construction across the country.

"All government efforts are aimed at the immediate completion of the country's highway and railway projects," Behbahani said.

In January 2011, Iran announced China's interest in participating in the construction of eight railroad projects with a total length of about 5,000 kilometers in the Islamic Republic.

The projects included the Tehran-Mashhad 900-kilometer railway line, 410-kilometer Tehran-Qom-Esfahan railway line and 370-kilometer Qazvin-Rasht-Anzali-Astara railway line.

The Iranian official overseeing the projects, Massoud Rahnama, estimated that the projects would cost about $12 billion.

Iranian officials have announced future plans to expand the railroad westward to Iraq and ultimately to Syria.