Additional countries can join North-South project – Russian Railways

Baku, Azerbaijan, June 30 By Maksim Tsurkov – Trend: North-South transport corridor project that brings together Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran, can involve other countries as well, Vladimir Yakunin, head of JSC Russian Railways told Trend June 30. He said that the project for construction of Rasht-Astara (Iran) railway is only at the design stage for the present. “Taking this into account, theoretically, it is possible to involve other countries in this project,” said Yakunin. For instance, the participation of India and Oman which are the members of the Coordinating Council of the North-South project and are interested in developing various cargo supply routes via this corridor can be considered, he added. Yakunin said that to date, Russian Railways JSC hasn’t received appeals from other countries for participation in this project. The purpose of creating the North-South international transport corridor is to integrate the highways of Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran. The 375-kilometers long Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway is currently the missing link in the North-South transport corridor and it will connect the Northern Europe to South-East Asia. It will link the railroads of Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia. The construction of the Qazvin-Rasht railway with the length of 205 kilometers has already been completed. Its capacity will be equal to 1.4 million passengers and 5-7 million metric tons of cargo per year, according to the preliminary estimates. As many as 22 tunnels, 15 bridges will be built on the railway. The construction of 15 tunnels has already been completed. At the initial stage, it is planned to transport 6 million metric tons of cargo via the North-South corridor per year and further to increase this figure to 15-20 million metric tons. Edited by SI --- Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov Follow us on Twitter @TRENDNewsAgency