BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 21. As part of the North–South International Transport Corridor, 540 hectares of land have been purchased from residents in the northern Iranian province of Gilan, through which the Rasht–Astara railway line will run.
According to the Iranian Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, this was announced by Houshang Bazvand, Iran’s Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development and Executive Director of the Transport Infrastructure Construction and Development Company.
“The length of the Rasht–Astara railway line is 162 kilometers. In previous years, the process of acquiring land along the planned route proceeded slowly. For example, over the past 10 years, land totaling just 20 kilometers in length was acquired from citizens. However, over the past two years, land has been acquired along a 140–145-kilometer stretch,” he said.
The deputy minister added that once the legal procedures are completed and the railway line is approved by the Supreme National Security Council, as well as by the relevant authorities in Russia, a contract for the construction of the railway line will be signed.
The “North–South” International Transport Corridor was established under an intergovernmental agreement signed on September 12, 2000, between Russia, Iran, and India. Subsequently, the agreement was ratified by several countries, including the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Bulgaria, India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Sultanate of Oman, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, the Republic of Türkiye, and Ukraine.
The purpose of establishing the corridor is to reduce delivery times for cargo from India to Russia, as well as to countries in Northern and Western Europe. Currently, delivery via the existing route takes more than six weeks, whereas it is expected that the “North–South” route will reduce this time to about three weeks.
As part of the corridor, the Qazvin–Rasht railway (175 km), connecting the Azerbaijani railways to the Iranian railway network, was put into operation on March 6, 2019. The Rasht–Astara railway is to be built within Iran.
The North-South Corridor has three routes within Iran. The eastern route leads to Turkmenistan and the countries of Central Asia; the central route leads to Russia and other countries via the Caspian Sea; and the western route leads to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, and the countries of Eastern Europe.
On May 17, 2023, an agreement was signed between Russia and Iran on the construction of the Rasht–Astara railway in Gilan Province in northern Iran. Nine stations will be built along the Rasht–Astara railway line, which will be approximately 163 km long. Upon completion of this railway, the North-South International Corridor will be improved, and Iran’s railway network will be connected to the countries of the Caucasus, Russia, and Northern Europe. According to the agreement, the Russian side is to spend 1.6 billion euros on the construction of this railway. Construction is scheduled to be completed within 48 months.
