In less than five months, we could see the railway corridor connecting Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan fully operational. The declaration has been made by SeyedMasoud Nasr Azadani, Deputy Director of the Construction and Development of Transport Infrastructure Company in Iran (CDITC).
During a reunion with the Turkmen party in February, it was established that in the next five months the railway connecting the three countries could become operational. Iran has built most of this corridor on its territory and we now have only 400 metres to build”, added Azadani. The declarations have been confirmed by Mohammad JavadZarif, Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. KhanmamedAtaev, Chief Engineer for Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Transport, said the Government in Ashgabat will meet its obligations in the project so that its part of the corridor could be completed in 3 months. Ataev also said that in six months, Iran and Turkmenistan will build a bridge over Atrek River. Thus, Turkmenistan could complete works in October. The Iran – Turkmenistan – Kazakhstan railway is part of the North-South international transport corridor. In 2013, Turkmenistan built over 180 km of railways and has only 90 km more to build.
The North-South Corridor will facilitate freight transport from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf and its launch would reduce the route of freight transport between the two regions by over 600 km. The corridor will be the most important international connection between China and Europe.
According to studies, 3-5 million tonnes of freight will be carried in the first phase and 10-20 million tonnes of freight will be carried on this railway route after the finalization of the entire project.
Countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan and even Afghanistan have manifested their interest in developing the railway network of this corridor. Turkey is also ready to access the Iran – Turkmenistan – Kazakhstan railway transport corridor, declared Turkey’s President Abdullah Gül at the middle of last year.
According to Iranian Railways (RAI), the operation of the Corridor will significantly reduce freight transport time from 45-60 days at present to 25-30 days.
“For the deployment of the railway line, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran have initiated the construction of the Uzen-Gorgan line along the Caspian Sea to replace the longer actual route to Iran”, declared Vadim Morozov, Vice President of Russian Railways.“For the first time in history, the construction of this route will make possible the establishment of a rail connection of around 4,500 km from St. Petersburg to the port of Bandar Abbas (Iran) in the Persian Gulf and a shorter connection between North-East and Central Europe to the countries in Middle East and South Asia”, added Morozov. The line will be used for the organisation of international container railway traffic.
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