Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran discuss prospects of railway construction under North-South project

Azerbaijan Railways JSC attends the next trilateral meeting (Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran) as part of North-South international transport corridor, the JSC said in a statement released Monday.

The meeting discusses the issues of creating a joint venture for the construction of the railway Qazvin-Rasht-Astara (Iran) - Astara (Azerbaijan), design of construction and other issues.

The meeting will last Jan. 31 - Feb. 1. Deputy chairman of the JSC Igbal Huseynov represents Azerbaijan at the meeting.

The$400-million North-South transport corridor envisages creation of a single railway from Europe through Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran to India and South-East Asia. Most of the work will be done in Iran, which has no rail link to the border with Azerbaijan. Certain work worth $35-40 million is planned to be conducted in Azerbaijan.

The scope of work in Azerbaijan envisages the construction of a 8.5km-long railway to the Astara station with systems of changing of wheel pairs, a bridge and border and customs infrastructure. This project will be implemented on a parity basis with Iran.

Transportation of goods along the North-South corridor is predicted at five million tons per year in the first phase, and it is planned to increase the volume to 10-15 million tons per year in the future.


/Trend/