Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug 3
By Farhad Daneshvar – Trend:
Iran has taken required measures for the construction of a short segment of a railroad project which along with other segments will connect the country’s northern city of Rasht to Azerbaijan’s southern city of Astara, an informed source told Trend.
The two kilometer long segment will link a cargo terminal in Iran’s border city of Astara to a bridge which is currently under construction over the border between the two neighboring countries.
The 82.5 meters long bridge over the Astarachay River which defines border between the two neighboring countries is being constructed by both, Iran and Azerbaijan.
As part of the project, Azerbaijan has already launched the construction of a 8.3 kilometer long railway segment on its own soil in order to extend railway from its city of Astara to the bridge.
According to information obtained by Trend, Azerbaijani constructors have carried out considerable works on the project and they will start laying rail lines on the 8.3 km long route as of mid-August.
Simultaneously, Iran and Azerbaijan are jointly constructing the 164 kilometer long Astara-Rasht railway inside the Islamic Republic.
The railway segments connecting Iran’s Rasht to Azerbaijan’s Astara are projected to be completed by the end of the current year.
The construction of the Rasht-Astara railway comes as part of a larger project to create the North-South transportation corridor.
The North-South transportation corridor is meant to connect Northern Europe with Southeast Asia. It will serve as a link for connecting the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia.
At the initial stage, it is planned to transport 5 million tons of cargo via the North-South corridor per year and to increase the figure to over 10 million tons in the future.
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