The Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway line will be opened on December 3, Tengrinews reports citing Almaty TV.
The Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway line will be opened on December 3, Tengrinews reports citing Almaty TV.
The total length of the railway is 900 kilometers. 82 kilometers of the new railway line passes through Iran, 700 kilometers through Turkmenistan and the remaining 120 kilometers through Kazakhstan.
Aneh Mohammad Kouseh-Gharavi, a board member of Iran railways said that presidents of all three countries would be present at the opening ceremony.
The new route shortens the distance between the Persian Gulf, Central Asia and Europe by 600 km, which significantly reduces transportation costs.
According to Kouseh-Gharavi, Iran invested $52.3 million into the project. The remaining $112 million are required to complete the project co-funded by three countries.
“Before the end of the year the railway is going to be launched. According to some estimates, the freight flow may reach 15 million tons by 2020, with 3 million tons of them being transit freights,” Magtymguly Akmyradov, Turkmenistan’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Kazakhstan said.
Writing by Gyuzel Kamalova, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina