Russia and Iran Begin Survey for Rasht-Astara Railway Construction

Russia and Iran have begun survey work for the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway line in Iran, according to a post by the Russian Transport Ministry on its Telegram channel.

The construction will include 162 km of railway track, eight new stations, 56 overhead crossings, 73 bridges, and 30 through bridges, The Caspian Post reports citing Interfax.

"The potential of the route is obvious. This is confirmed by the interest shown by foreign countries," Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit was quoted as saying in the report.

The section will become part of the North-South international transport corridor.

The North-South ITC connects northern Europe with the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean states via Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. The agreement on establishing the multimodal corridor was signed in 2000 between Russia, Iran and India, and currently 12 countries are participants. The corridor includes three directions, namely going west along the western shore of the Caspian Sea, east accordingly along the eastern one, and the trans-Caspian across the Caspian Sea.