Iran Approves Agreement on Rasht–Astara Railway Construction

Iran's Supreme National Security Council has approved an agreement on the construction of the Rasht–Astara railway section and the transfer of the entire 162-kilometer route to a Russian company for conducting surveys and field work, TASS reported citing Iran's Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development and director of the General Department of Construction and Development of Transport Infrastructure (CDTIC), Hushang Bazvand.

"Thanks to the efforts of the Supreme National Security Council, the agreement, fortunately, was approved last week," Bazvand told Tasnim agency.

According to him, the remaining 37 kilometers of right-of-way along the route were transferred to the Russian company last Wednesday, meaning the entire route is now at its disposal. Iranian engineers will also be involved in the surveys, and the pace of work will accelerate.

Earlier, on November 5, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Nikitin announced that the Russian company Caspian Services and Iranian CDTIC signed a protocol providing access to land plots along the entire route for engineering surveys, as well as an additional agreement to the contract.

The Rasht–Astara section is a key element of the International North–South Transport Corridor, which is intended to connect the railway networks of Russia and Iran into a single system and open a through route to the Persian Gulf and further into South Asia.