BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 6. Approximately 128,000 tons of cargo were transited through Iran’s Astara railway terminal in Gilan Province in the north of the country, during the first six months of the current Iranian year (March 21 through September 22, 2023), Director General of Iran's Northern Railway Department Gholam Hossein Valadi said, Trend reports.
The director general added that the transited products mainly consisted of flour, millet, barley, wheat, chemicals, and etc.
The Astara railway terminal is located in Iran’s Astara city on an area of 35 hectares, 1.4 km from the Azerbaijan-Iran border.
According to the intergovernmental agreement between Azerbaijan and Iran, the construction of the terminal began in 2017. The Astara railway terminal, built by Azerbaijan Railways, has been leased to Azerbaijan for 25 years.
Despite the ongoing construction of the Astara terminal, several parts of the terminal have already been ready for operation, and from the beginning of 2018, transshipment operations have been carried out there.
In total, Iran’s non-oil trade (including exports, imports and transit) via Astara railway terminal exceeded 322,000 tons in the first half of the current Iranian year, representing 44 percent growth from the previous year.
Meanwhile, a total of 7.7 million tons of cargo were transited through Iran during the first 6 months of the current Iranian year, which is an increase of 8.24 percent compared to the same period last year.
