TEHRAN: The rail link between Astara in Azerbaijan and the Iranian namesake city was officially inaugurated in a ceremony held on March 29.
Presidents Hassan Rouhani of Iran and Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan participated via a video link from the Iran-Azerbaijan Business Forum they were attending in Baku, British business journal Railway Gazette International reported.
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Around 7,600 tons of freight have already been carried on the route since the operation of the first freight train on Feb. 8. The new line forms part of the International North-South Transport Corridor that is being developed to link northern Europe with the Indian Ocean. Azerbaijan is investing $500 million in the construction of a 167-km standard gauge line to link the Astara terminal with the Iranian rail network in Rasht.
INSTC will connect Iran with Russia’s Baltic ports and give Russia rail connectivity to both Persian Gulf and the Indian rail network. This means goods could be carried from Mumbai in India to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and further to Baku. They could then pass across the Russian border into Astrakhan before proceeding to Moscow and St. Petersburg, before entering Europe.
The corridor would substantially cut the travel time for everything from Asian consumer goods to Central Eurasia’s natural resources to advanced European exports.
When completed, INSTC is expected to increase the volume of commodities currently traded between Iran and Azerbaijan from 600,000 tons to 5 million tons per year, dramatically increasing bilateral trade from the current $500 million per year.
“The North-South transit route, which the two countries are currently participating in as part of the implementation of the Rasht-Astara Railroad project, means a more convenient, cheaper and shorter route for the two countries, countries of the region and even for Asia, Europe and Africa, indicating that our cooperation is in the interest of the peoples of the region and the world,” President Rouhani said.
President Aliyev noted that the Rasht-Astara Railroad would be “built in a short span of time, opening new opportunities for the entire Eurasian region”.
