Iran and Russia to Implement North-South Corridor

The Russian and Iranian railway departments intend to attract additional volumes of cargo after the commissioning of the North-South transport corridor, as the current turnover does not satisfy either of the parties.

According to the information on the site of JSC Russian Railways, the topic was a priority at the Tehran meeting of the head of Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov with his Iranian counterpart Mohsen Pour Seyed Aghai.

According to Belozerov, the sides have experience of joint infrastructure projects - so, in 2012, Russian Railways completed the electrification of the railway line Tabriz-Azarshahr. Now it is necessary to increase the railway traffic through Azerbaijan, for which it is necessary to complete the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway line, which will accelerate the delivery of goods between the countries of Europe, the Persian Gulf and South Asia.

The two sides also discussed the conditions for the implementation of the Garmsar - Indja Burun line's electrification project. The line's length is 495 kilometers, 203 kilometers of which pass through a mountainous terrain, which will increase the capacity and speed of the trains.

Following the meeting, a protocol was signed on the main directions of further cooperation between the parties. Recall, the corridor North-South is originally planned to transport 5 million tons of cargo a year, which will be increased twofold in both directions further. --17D-