Armenians are not happy with the plans to connect the railways of Iran and Azerbaijan

Yerevan/24.02.16/Turan-ArmInfo: The Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Armenia Yervand Zakaryan commented on the Iranian-Azerbaijani agreement on connecting the railways of the two countries signed yesterday in Tehran.  Iran will spend about $250 million for realization of this project, and the construction of Iran-Armenia railway will require $3 billion.

Zakaryan said that a memorandum on the construction of the road through Armenia was signed 20 days ago. "I do not think that such a powerful country like Iran, which is already free of sanctions, will sign a document  and  will  give it up  in a month," he said. Russia also opposes the construction of the railway from Iran to Armenia, and regards this project uneconomic and technically very complicated.

Before the visit the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced Tehran's intentions to combine their railways to the railways in Azerbaijan. "Railways of Iran and Azerbaijan will be connected by the end of 2016 year," the Iranian president said in a statement before the press during the visit of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to Tehran. "With regard to transit and corridor "North-South", the connection of railways Astara (Iran) - Astara (Azerbaijan) will be an important event before the end of this year," said Rouhani.

Railway station "North-South" will connect Northern Europe with South-East Asia. It will serve as a bridge to connect the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia. According to preliminary estimates, the capacity of the railway will be 1.4 million passengers and from five to seven million tons of cargo per year. Throughout the 22 railway tunnels and 15 bridges will be built. In the first step along the corridor "North-South" is planned to transport six million tons of cargo per year, and in the future - 15-20 million tons of cargo.--02D-