NEW DELHI, October 5. /TASS/. Russian and Indian Railways will sign a memorandum to set up a joint operator for rail cargo traffic via the North-South corridor, Russian Railway's First Deputy Director General Alexander Misharin told reporters on Friday.

Misharin named rail traffic via the North-South corridor among the priorities for cooperation between the two companies.

"Today we plan to sign a memorandum of agreement on developing cooperation with Indian Railways, which includes design and supplies of dispatch control systems, automated systems, creating a joint operator, research and preparation of documents to organize joint agreements on cargo traffic," the executive said.

The North-South international transport corridor is aimed at transporting cargo from India and Persian Gulf countries to western and northern Europe via Iran, Azerbaijian and Russia. The corridor’s main advantage is that the delivery will be two or three times faster than via other routes. Initially, the sides plan to transport 5 million tonnes annually, and the volume may be doubled in the future.