Russian Ministry of Transport: Russian companies to build Rasht-Astara railway line in Iran

Russian companies will be engaged in the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway section in Iran, which is part of the North-South International Transport Corridor (ITC), Russian Transport Minister Andrei Nikitin said on the air of the Rossiya-1 TV channel, Report informs.

"Of course, this connection in Iran is important for us. Colleagues need to determine the route finally, we need to start working, in fact, on the purchase of land plots," he said. "Russian companies will be doing the construction."

In 2023, Russia and Iran signed an agreement within the North-South project on the joint construction of a 160-kilometer section of the Rasht-Astara road between Azerbaijan and Iran, which will provide through travel to the ports of the Persian Gulf.

The total cost of the project is 1.6 billion euros. According to the document, Moscow and Tehran will jointly finance the design, construction, as well as supply of goods and services. Iran's Ambassador to Moscow, Kazem Jalali, stated in April of this year that the Rasht-Astara railway could be built no earlier than in three to four years.