Azerbaijan, Iran discuss financing railway project in Iran
By Sara Rajabova
The second meeting of the working group on a railway project between Iran and Azerbaijan was held in the Iranian city of Anzali on November 18.
The Qazvin-Rasht-Astara (Iran)-Astara (Azerbaijan) railway project is part of the North-South transportation corridor.
Deputy Secretary-General of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Altaf Asghar spoke about the importance of the Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway project and the measures undertaken by the ECO for the realization of the project.
During the meeting, Azerbaijan and Iran discussed financing the Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway project.
Azerbaijani delegation was led by infrastructure department chief at Azerbaijan Railways closed joint-stock company Fizuli Guliyev and Azerbaijani Embassy official in Iran Natig Zulfigarov.
Guliyev briefed the Iranian side on the work done by the Azerbaijani side for the realization of the project. He said that Azerbaijan is making a serious effort for the realization of economically profitable regional and international projects.
The second meeting of the working group was organized by ECO for the promotion of the project, estimation, and financing the construction.
The first meeting was convened in May, 2013 in Baku.
On November 17, a delegation consisting of 37 high-ranking officials of ECO visited Iran's Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railway network which is under construction.
The representatives of the diplomatic missions of the countries in Tehran traveled to the Iranian cities of Qazvin and Rasht in order to observe the construction project of the railway network, which lies in the North-South international transport corridor.
The Astara-Qazvin-Rasht railway is 205 kilometers long. The length of the Qazvin-Rasht railway section is 164 kilometers.
Eighty-two bridges with a total length of nine kilometers and 53 tunnels with a total length of 22 kilometers will be built within the framework of the Astara-Qazvin-Rasht railway project.
The creation of a direct railway communication along the western coast of the Caspian Sea can significantly contribute to the growth of the transportation market in the region and become a good motivation for the expansion of foreign economic relations between the region's states and European countries.