Iran begins constructing railway line linking Central Asia to India
Iran announced the official launch of the construction of the Mashhadzahedan railway line.
This section of the railway will link Central Asia to the southeastern Iranian port of Chabahar on the Indian Ocean, according to First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri, Azer News reported.
He recalled that the construction of the 900-kilometer railway line on the North-south route was completed three years ago through joint efforts of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran.
The project was financed by Asian and Islamic development banks.
The railroad will be extended to Chabahar thus providing Central Asian countries access to the Indian Ocean by rail. These countries are already linked to Europe by rail. It will thus create a shorter route for Europe to the Indian Ocean as well.
The agreement on the construction of the Kazakhstan-turkmenistan-iran road (KTI) was signed by the leaders of the three states in 2007 and works on this began in 2009.
In 2014, the construction of a 900-kilometer railway corridor on the North-south route from Kazakhstan through Turkmenistan to the mountainous province of Golestan in the north of Iran was completed.
The Kazakhstan-turkmenistaniran railway will reach its full design capacity by 2022. Up to 15 million tons of cargo will be transported annually through this corridor.