North-South railway to ensure Azerbaijan, Iran big profits

Astara, Azerbaijan, Oct. 9 By Temkin Jafarov, Maksim Tsurkov – Trend: The North-South railway project will bring great profits to Azerbaijan and Iran, the chairman of Azerbaijani Railways CJSC Javid Gurbanov told Trend Oct. 9. The delegations of Azerbaijan and Iran will get familiarized with the construction of the Astara (Iran)-Astara (Azerbaijan) railway line within the framework of the North-South international transport corridor October 9-10. The Azerbaijani delegation is headed by Minister of Economy and Industry Shahin Mustafayev. Gurbanov said that the parties must work together on the construction of the railway. “According to statistics, the volume of freight transportation between Europe and India is 25 million tons a year, between Russia and Iran - 6 million tons, the Gulf states and Europe - 30-40 million tons,” said Gurbanov. “Despite the fact that the shortest way to St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Berlin, many cities of the Russian Federation, etc., passes through Azerbaijan and Iran, almost all the cargoes pass us by. That deprives both the railways of Iran and Azerbaijan from profits. Therefore, we are interested in this railway being built.” He went to add that the project will be further developed after the signing of the relevant protocols. “This railway is a great source of income for Azerbaijan and Iran, it will also create many new job places,” said Gurbanov. The North-South transport corridor will connect Northern Europe to South-East Asia. It will serve as a bridge to connect the railways of Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia. According to preliminary estimates, its capacity will be 1.4 million passengers and 5-7 million metric tones of cargo a year. Around 22 tunnels and 15 bridges will be built throughout the railway. The volume of cargo transportation through the corridor will amount to 6 million metric tons in the initial stage and will reach 15-20 million metric tons in the future. Edited by CN --- Follow the author on Twitter: @JafarovTemkin , @MaksimTsurkov