Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran to agree on completion of North-South railway

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
17 Mar 17:56

The railway will become fully operational once the construction of the last section is completed.

Map of North-South Transport Corridor route vs standard route from India (Wikimedia commons)

Russia, Azerbaijan, and Iran are set to agree on the completion of the construction of the last section of the railway route of the North-South International Transport Corridor (ITC), First Deputy Managing Director of Russian Railways Sergey Pavlov told reporters on the sidelines of the CIS International Economic Forum on Friday.

The railway is scheduled to be completed this year, Pavlov said.

"The Ministry of Transport is preparing two intergovernmental agreements: Iran-Russia and trilateral Azerbaijan-Russia-Iran," Pavlov told reporters.

Answering a reporter's question on whether the document would be signed this year, Pavlov said "absolutely."

He noted that Iran estimates construction time for the last section of the rail route at about four years. However, Russian Railways is ready to speed up this process, Pavlov added, noting that the cost of the construction is estimated at $1.6 billion.

With only the Astara-Rasht section of the railway remaining, the North-South ITC is almost complete.

Once completed, the railway will become fully operational along the entire length of the corridor.

The North-South railway, stretching 7,200 kilometers from St. Petersburg to the port of Mumbai (India), will be used as an alternative to the sea route connecting Europe, the Gulf, and the Indian Ocean via the Suez Canal.

Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that agreements were made with regard to the construction of the Dagestan-Azerbaijan-Iran route.

Putin said that all countries involved in the agreement have greenlighted the project despite geopolitical obstacles that may arise in the building process.

"Everyone agrees, despite the complexity of geopolitical layouts and contradictions between the countries of the regions that always arise between neighbors. Everyone agrees that it is necessary to build this route [Dagestan-Azerbaijan-Iran]," Putin said during his speech before the congress, noting that determining the time required for the construction of the route is now a pressing matter.

Putin also called on Russian investors to invest their money to speed up the construction of the route.

"The goods will continue to flow... it will always be in demand, so we need to find the resources and consolidate these financial resources for this project... The government should think about how to add up this pool of possible investors. To be honest, I would like it to be Russian investors. Well, why miss out on such profitable and good projects," the Russian head of State said.