BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 18. Tehran and Moscow are finalizing the draft contract on the implementation of the agreement on the construction of the Rasht-Astara railroad as part of the North-South international transport corridor (ITC), the foreign media said, Trend reports.
"This issue was recently the subject of discussion between Deputy Minister of Russian Railways Sergei Pavlov and Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali," the media specified.
Meanwhile, the Russian government, on May 17, 2023, after negotiations with the Iranian delegation in Moscow, agreed to allocate an interstate loan of 1.3 billion euros for the construction of the 162-kilometer Rasht-Astara section. The negotiations and allocation of the loan are supervised by VTB Bank (Russia).
The total cost of this project is 1.6 billion euros, and Iran is ready to provide the rest of the funds.
Additionally, it should be noted that the North-South ITC, with a current total length of 7200 kilometers, plans to create two branches: the western one from St. Petersburg to the cities of Iran near the Persian Gulf and the eastern one to Mumbai in India.
However, the decision to establish the North-South multimodal
ITC was made in 2000 in St. Petersburg.
The agreement on this corridor was ratified by 14 countries,
including Azerbaijan.
To note, in February 2024, Iran's Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development, Khairullah Hadami, stated that with the start of financing, the Rasht-Astara railroad section can be built in 5 years, i.e., put into operation in 2028.
The Russian Federation, Azerbaijan, and Iran believe that the implementation of the North-South ITC will allow the transport of 25–30 million tons of cargo per year, primarily dry cargo.
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