Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi inaugurated during his visit to Tabriz in East Azarbaijan province on Thursday the 44km Bostanabad-Tabriz railway, which cuts travel time between Tehran and the city to 4 hours from the previous 12 hours.

The newly operational section is the second phase of the Miyaneh-Bostanabad-Tabriz railway mega project, a rail transit that connects Iran to Europe for the first time.

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The network links Iran to Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan, Yerevan, and Tbilisi railways through Jolfa and aims to increase trade volume between the Islamic Republic and Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Turkey.

Trading through land routes, especially using railway networks, has been exponentially growing in recent years. Countries in Asia are particularly heavily investing in transit projects with aims to reduce trade costs, shorten the time, and in many cases, circumvent Western hegemony and sanctions.

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In June 2022, Raisi said Iran can act as a transit route connecting East and South Asia to Europe as well and that one of the priorities of the Iranian government is to resolve the barriers impeding railway trade.

He highlighted then that Iran is a low-cost and fast route for Asian and European countries and that Tehran's security has highlighted the role it can play in regional transit.

His comments came after announcing the opening of the first Kazakh transit train to cross Iran into Europe.

One of the priorities of the Iranian government is to play an effective role "in increasing regional integration by expanding trade through Iranian lands as a secure, reasonably priced, and quick route," he stressed.