17:04 - 20.09.2024

---

September 20, Fineko/abc.az. Russian company VTB — Project Office has presented to the government of the Russian Federation a project for development of international transport corridor North-South, within which it proposed creation of a new railway route from Azerbaijan to Iran as an alternative to Rasht-Astara road.

ABC.AZ reports that according to the presentation of the company called "ITC North-South – seamless technology of cargo transportation from Russia to the southern ports of Iran", it is proposed to connect Imishli (Azerbaijan) and Parsabad (Iran) by railway line.

VTB - Project Office envisages construction of a new railway from the borders of the Russian Federation to the southern port of Iran through Azerbaijan with single gauge of 1,520 mm. A digital platform will also be created to manage international traffic on the entire route.

The company offers three routes within the new corridor between Azerbaijan and Iran and creation of three route options is proposed on each route. The projected volume of cargo traffic on the new route is 30 million tons a year by 2030.

The cargo base for the route is grain, containers, metals, fertilizers, coal and petrochemicals. The construction of the new route is scheduled to start by the end of 2025, and completion by 2031.

North-South transport corridor is a multimodal route from St. Petersburg to the port of Mumbai (India). The length of the corridor is 7,200 km. Within this corridor, there are three routes – the Trans-Caspian (using railways and ports), as well as overland western (through Azerbaijan) and eastern (through the territory of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan).

In May 2023, Russia and Iran signed documents on completion of the last necessary section of the railway of the western North-South route, from Rasht to Astara in Iran, worth 1.6 billion euro. Of these finances, 1.3 billion euro is a loan from the Russian Federation, the rest is finances from the Iranian side.