Iran, Tajikistan Opt for Boosting Railway Cooperation

Deputy Managing Director of Iranian Railway Company Ebrahim Mohammadi and Tajikistan’s Ambassador to Iran Emomzoda Nematulla in a meeting in Tehran on Wednesday called for broadening of cooperation between the two countries’ railway companies, AVA Diplomatic reports.

During the meeting in the Iranian capital today, Mohammadi and Nematulla explored avenues for bolstering and reinvigorating of relations in the railway field.

“Tajikistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-Iran corridor can help in transit of two million tons of goods per year,” Mohammadi said during the meeting.

The deputy managing director of the Iranian Railway Company reiterated that Iran’s aluminum powder and crude oil will be soon exported to Tajikistan via railway.

Mohammadi also reported on transit via railway of aluminum ingots from Tajikistan to Bandar Abbas and monthly transit of 5,000 tons of aluminum powder from Jajarm to the Central Asian country as well as exports of crude oil from Ray to Sarakhs in the near future.

The Iranian official expressed hope that an agreement will be reached over carrying aluminum ingots through Iran at the upcoming summit of representatives of Tajik, Turkmen, Uzbek and Iranian railways.

“Transit of five thousand tons of aluminum powder per month as well as exports of crude oil to Tajikistan will take place in the near future,” he concluded.

In a relevant development in late December, Senior railway officials from Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan were finalizing talks to launch a joint railway linking the four countries.

“Negotiations are being made in line with a recent visit by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to the Central Asian countries,” Iran’s Railway Official Mir Hassan Moussavi said.

He underlined that Iran has plans to boost rail connections with regional countries, particularly those in Central Asia and Caucasus, to facilitate transfer of goods between Asia and Europe.

“The railway officials from the four countries have put negotiations on their agenda and their next meeting is scheduled to be held six months later,” Moussavi added.

In December 2014, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani underlined that the joint railway that links Iran to Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan on the Eastern side of the Caspian Sea and came into operation will help the three nations to further broaden their relations in different areas.

“Expansion of relations among the three countries of Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan is the main goal and desire of the people of the three countries by inaugurating the international railway on the East of Caspian Sea,” President Rouhani said in the Northern province of Golestan, addressing a joint press conference with his Turkmen and Kazakh counterparts on the sidelines of the railway inaugural ceremony.

He noted that during the trilateral meeting held in Inche-Boroun at the Iran-Turkmenistan borderline earlier today, he and his Turkmen and Kazakh counterparts decided to expand the economic relations among the three countries and use the joint railway for the same purpose.

The length of the railway is about 908 km of which 120 km is in Kazakhstan, 700 in Turkmenistan and 88 km in Iran.

The railway route connects the Commonwealth of the Independent States (CIS) countries to the Persian Gulf and the South East Asian nations.