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Russian specialists already working in Iran on Rasht-Astara railway project — Deputy PM

Russia and Iran signed an agreement to jointly build a 160-kilometer section of the Rasht-Astara railroad on May 17, 2023

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. Russian specialists are already present in Iran and working on the Rasht-Astara railway project, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk told reporters.

"Our specialists are already present in Iran and working," he said, answering a TASS question about how long the construction of the road might take.

Earlier, Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali said that the Rasht-Astara railway could be built no earlier than in 3-4 years.

On May 17, 2023, Russia and Iran signed an agreement to jointly build a 160-kilometer section of the Rasht-Astara railroad, which will make it possible to connect overland sections of the North-South international transport corridor and boost the economic efficiency of the Trans-Caspian route. Earlier reports said that Russia would extend a 1.3 bln euro sovereign loan to implement the project, with its total cost estimated at 1.6 bln euro.

An intergovernmental agreement on the creation of the multimodal transport corridor North-South spanning 7,200 km was signed by Russia, India and Iran in 2000. Later, the number of participants rose to 14. The project is aimed at attracting transit of cargo flows from India, Iran and the Persian Gulf countries through Russian territory to Europe.

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