Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan Railways and Russian Railways companies signed a cooperation memorandum, the national railways company reported on May 20.

The memorandum was inked under the framework of the 62nd meeting of the Council for Rail Transport of CIS countries and the Baltic States, held in Minsk Belarus on May 20-21.

The document was signed by Head of Azerbaijan Railways, Javid Gurbanov and President of Russian company ,Vladimir Yakunin. The memorandum includes cooperation in the transport field, and the conservation process of conformity for railway transport in between the two countries.

The document aims to increase cargo transportation within the “North-South” transport corridor as well as on the Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia-Europe route. The memorandum also expects to increase activity at the "Samur-Yalama” checkpoint, and increase the efficient use of freight cars for both countries.

The two sides decided to create a working group for the consideration of these issues.

Some 11 railway administrations of the CIS countries as well as Georgia, Bulgaria, Finland, Iran and Baltic States got together to discuss freights among the countries.

During the event, the heads of railway administrations discussed an agreement of regulations for a train schedule development for 2015 and 2016.

The construction of Azerbaijan's railway system and its further developments are closely connected with oil extraction and refining.

Azerbaijan laid its first railway cornerstone in 1878: Baku - Surakhani – Sabunchu line, which then stood at a length of 20 km. The construction was completed in 1880. It was then that oil was first transported in tanks. This day went down in history as the creation of Azerbaijan' s railway system.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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