Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran to build railways into Indian Ocean

Correspondent, a special correspondent for the Global Times, reported February 15 that despite international economic sanctions against Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan are not prepared to tear up cooperation projects with Iran, including the construction of a railway through the Indian Ocean within the framework of the north-South International traffic corridor. It is reported that the combined construction of railways and the realization of the three-way rail transit line is one of the priorities of railway development in Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran, which is mainly used to ensure the transport of goods from Scandinavia to the Indian Ocean coast. In order to implement this cooperation project and realize the link between the railway lines, the three countries of Russia and Iraq have held negotiations for 10 years, the latest negotiations in Tehran, the final signing of the three cooperation documents will accelerate the implementation of the project.　　The three parties agreed to work together to build a railway line from the city of Rasht in Iran to the city of Astara to the Astara City of Azerbaijan, and to this end a joint venture with a registered capital of USD 3 million was planned for the design, construction and use of railways, with the participation of the three parties in the project investment. Askrove, president of Azerbaijan's state-owned railways, said the project was very advantageous from an economic standpoint and that 17 countries had now announced that it was no coincidence.　　The essence of this is to extend the trans-European transport corridor from Helsinki, Finland, to St. Petersburg, Russia, and to transport the goods via Azerbaijan to Iran, India and the Gulf states using a variety of modes of transportation (train, tanker, container, road trailer). Experts believe that the implementation of the North-South International Traffic Corridor project will bring a number of obvious benefits, both for project participants and for other countries. First, overland lines from Europe to the Indian Ocean will be shortened by 800 kilometres, with initial shipments of up to 5 million tonnes per annum and up to 20 million tonnes in the future, and second, the cost of transporting goods through the Suez Canal will be reduced 10-15%　　The time will be shortened by 20 days; In addition, the North-south traffic corridor will actually become the new transport logistics trunk line, and even affect the geopolitical and geo-economic existing pattern. The project participants are therefore prepared to actively accelerate the implementation process, and the main ongoing construction work will be carried out within Iran. With regard to Azerbaijan, it was necessary to improve the 500-kilometre railway line from the Aramaic station at the junction with Russia to the Astara station at the junction with Iran, and to build 4 1050-metre-long stations and corresponding customs, checkpoints and 101-metre-long railway bridges. It is estimated that the whole project will cost about $400 million trillion, and in the case of rising prices, the final cost may be moderately improved.