Iran is ready to establish transit multimodal transportations to Central Asia
"Iranian Railways", the state-owned company operating the railway network in the Islamic Republic of Iran, plans to arrange combined cargo transportation from the ports of Bandar Abbas and Chabahar to the countries of Central Asia, reports MehrNews with reference to the head of the company’s international transportation and transit department Hossein Ashouri. The subject was touched upon at the recent talks in New Delhi between the Minister of Roads and Urban Development of IRI and the Minister of Transport of India in the context of the emerging corridor "Chabahar" (India-Iran-Afghanistan), which opens up broad prospects for access of Indian producers to the markets of Central Asia. According to the official, “it was agreed that negotiators should pay a visit from the abovementioned regions.” However, the infrastructural development is in full swing to turn the idea into practice. During the visit, Iranian and Indian transport authorities stroke a number of deals related to cooperation in the railway sector, including a memorandum on procurement of freight cars and locomotives from India. Commenting on the agreements, Indian minister Nitin Gadkari noted that “[Locomotives and cars] they will also be used in the Chabahar-Zahedan railroad to accelerate development of the Chabahar Port in line with India's goal to connect to Central Asia and ultimately Europe through this Iranian port." Chabahar-Zahedan railway line is part of the Chabahar-Zahedan-Birjand-Mashhad-Sarakhs (Turkmen-Iranian Border) main line project with a starting capacity of 5 million tons of cargo per year.
