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The railway crossing at the border between Turkmenistan and Iran in the area of ​​Akyaila and Incheburun stations reopened, the IRNA News Agency reported. Traffic resumed on Tuesday after a 100-day inaction period due to measures to prevent the coronavirus pandemic.

In an interview with IRNA on Tuesday evening, Director General of the North-Eastern Railway 2 (Golestan) Mehdi Abdolkarimzadeh said: “With the resumption of rail exchanges between the two countries, 30 cement transporting wagons from Iran with a destination to Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan entered Turkmenistan, following sanitary protocols”.

According to him, since the suspension of trade between Iran and Turkmenistan, especially via the railways of the two countries, 131 wagons loaded with cement, building materials, metal products, ceramic tiles, plastic materials, and glass products have stood at the railway station Incheburun.

He added that with the resumption of trade between Iran and Turkmenistan via the Incheburun railway line, the remaining wagons will gradually export goods to Turkmenistan and other countries of Central Asia, complying with medical protocols and passing through disinfection tunnels.

The official reminded that last year, prior to closing the border with Turkmenistan, 144 thousand tons of goods were exported via the Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan international railway.

In this regard, Director General of the Golestan Province Customs Seyed Ibrahim Hosseini told IRNA that the resumption of trade between Iran and Turkmenistan would be limited to the railway line, and would not include the traffic of trucks and transit trailers and trucks.

The necessary measures to resume the movement of trucks and transit trailers are on the agenda of senior officials of the two countries.

The boundary Golestan Province in northern Iran borders with Turkmenistan and the provinces of Mazandaran, Semnan and Northern Khorasan. Export to Turkmenistan from the Incheburun terminal was suspended on March 28 after an outbreak of coronavirus. Cargo is delivered to Iran from China, Turkey, Europe and the CIS countries through the border crossing Akyaila - Incheburun.

Last week, a railway border crossing between Iran and Turkmenistan was also reopened in the area of Serakhs.

The Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway opened on December 3, 2014 with the participation of the Presidents of all countries parties to the project. Later, China joined the route, and, starting from 2016, test trains with containers began to run along this corridor.

The Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran steel way is also part of the North-South transport corridor to become an alternative to the Suez Canal for cargo flows from South Asia to Europe and vice versa. The total length of the North – South corridor from the Indian port of Mumbai to Moscow is approximately 7 thousand km. One of the three directions of the corridor (eastern) passes by rail through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, with an access to the Iranian railroads network through the border crossings Serakhs (Turkmenistan) - Serakhs (Iran) and Akyaila (Turkmenistan) - Incheburun (Iran).

Janmamed GULAMOV