BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 10. A tripartite meeting will be held among of the officials of Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia in order to increase the cargo transit in November, 2022, Iranian Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development Shahriar Afandizadeh told Trend.
The deputy minister said that the three countries focus on the expansion and strengthening of transport infrastructures in order to increase cargo transit.
Afandizadeh added that the development of cargo transit and transport infrastructures was discussed during a tripartite meeting held with the participation of Iranian, Azerbaijani and Russian officials in Tehran on October 9.
“Discussions focused mainly on construction of the Rasht-Astara railway line in the north of Iran. The Russian side is interested in launching this railway line with the coordination of Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia. Iran proposed to have Russia allocate funds worth about 800 million euro for the construction of the mentioned railway line. The final decision on the allocation of the needed funds will be made at the next meeting," he noted.
According to Afandizadeh, some of the necessary areas for the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway line have already been purchased from citizens. The mentioned funds should be allocated to purchase the remaining areas.
The foundation of the ‘International North-South Transport Corridor’ was laid on the basis of an intergovernmental agreement signed between Russia, Iran, and India on September 12, 2000.
In total, 13 countries have ratified the agreement, including Azerbaijan, India, Iran, Russia, Türkiye, etc.
The purpose of creating a corridor is to reduce the delivery time of cargo from India to Russia, as well as to North and West Europe. Delivery time on the current route is more than 6 weeks, it is expected to be reduced to 3 weeks via North-South Transport Corridor.
The 175 km long Qazvin-Rasht railway was officially put into operation on March 6, 2019, to connect Azerbaijani railways with the Iranian railway network within the corridor. In addition, the 167 km long Rasht-Astara railway line must be built in Iran.
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