BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 28. Cargo transit through Iran’s Astara railway terminal in Gilan Province in the north of the country increased by 36.3 percent during the first nine months of the current Iranian year (March 21 through December 21, 2023), compared to the same period last year, Director General of Iran's Northern Railway Department Gholam Hossein Valadi said, Trend reports.
According to Valadi, 210,000 tons of cargo were transited through the Astara railway terminal in nine months.
“Meanwhile, in the same period last Iranian year, the figure stood at 154,000 tons,” he said.
The director general added that the transited products mainly consisted of flour, millet, barley, wheat, chemicals, 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 since the beginning of 2018, transshipment operations have been carried out there.
According to the latest data from the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), about 9.5 million tons of cargo were transited through Iran’s roads and railroads in the first eight months of the current Iranian year (March 21 through November 21, 2023), which is an increase of 28.2 percent compared to the same period last year.
Currently, Iran has 2,793 km of controlled-access highways, 45,170 km of highways and freeways, and 14,984 km of railway lines. There are 978 locomotives, 29,305 freight wagons, and 2,153 passenger wagons operating on Iran’s railways.