THE VILLAGE OF MAYMA /Republic of Altai/, June 23. /TASS/. Moscow and Tehran are moving ahead in their joint work on the Rasht-Astara railway section, Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali told TASS on the sidelines of the 2nd International Altai Forum.

"The agreement was signed in the presence of two presidents, and now the ministries of transport of our two states are just preparing to put the agreement into practice. We think that both countries have shown their seriousness in this matter, and we are moving ahead. There are no special problems along this path," he said responding to a question about how work is progressing on the Rasht-Astara section.

On May 17, 2023, representatives of the two countries - Russian Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev and the Minister of Roads and Urban Development of Iran Mehrdad Bazrpash signed an agreement on the joint construction of this section. According to the document, Moscow and Tehran will jointly finance the design, construction, as well as the supply of goods and services

Some 170 km long, the Rasht-Astara line is designed to link land sections of the International North-South Transport Corridor, which will boost the economic efficiency of the trans-Caspian route. It is planned that the Rasht-Astara line will be built by Moscow and Tehran, while the Astara (Iranian city) - Astara (Azerbaijani city) line will be constructed by Moscow, Tehran, and Baku. The cost of the section’s construction is $1.6 billion.