MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/. Moscow and Tehran are actively working on launching the North-South international transport corridor as soon as possible, Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali said in an interview with TASS.
"As for transport issues, after the visit of the President [Ibrahim Raisi to Moscow], many companies expressed interest in investing in this area. The creation and development of a market within the North-South corridor is on the agenda of companies in both countries. Officials also are working to launch this corridor as soon as possible," he said.
According to the diplomat, a lot of decisions were made to develop ports, marine technology and the navy.
"Important meetings were held between Russian entrepreneurs and industrialists and their Iranian counterparts. Both sides are committed to developing technologies, investing and implementing projects in the two countries, as well as in the construction of various power plants, oil refineries, the road and construction industries, forest areas and so on. In particular, the parties agreed on joint implementation of projects in third countries," Jalali added.
Iran, India and Russia signed an intergovernmental agreement on the creation of a multi-mode North-South transport corridor in 2000. Later, the number of participants expanded to 14. The goal of the project is to attract the transit of cargo flows from India, Iran and the Persian Gulf countries through the Russian territory to Europe (in comparison with the sea route through the Suez Canal, the distance is more than halved, which reduces the time and cost of transportation). For the moment, the project combines several various transport systems of individual states. India has invested about $2.1 billion in the project. Part of it was invested in the construction of transport infrastructure in Iran.