TEHRAN, November 8. /TASS/. Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has endorsed the agreement on the construction of the Rasht - Astara railway line and the transfer of the entire 162-kilometer line to a Russian company to conduct surveys, Iranian Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development and Director General of Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company (CDTIC) Houshang Bazvand said.

"Thanks to the efforts made by the Supreme National Security Council, the agreement was fortunately approved last week," he told the Tasnim news agency.

According to Bazvand, last Wednesday, the remaining 37 kilometers of land along the route were transferred to the Russian company, and thus the entire route has now been handed over for the necessary surveys and fieldwork. Now, as he noted, the work will proceed more quickly, and Iranian engineers will also be involved in the surveys.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Nikitin said on November 5 that Russia’s Caspian Services and Iran’s CDTIC signed a protocol of granting access to land plots all over the route for advance engineering surveys, and a supplemental agreement to contract.

The Rasht-Astara section will connect the railway networks of Russia and Iran into a single system. It is a cornerstone element of the International North-South Transport Corridor, which will open a seamless route for the Persian Gulf and then to South Asian region.