Speaking Wednesday in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, Mr Zyabirov pointed out that the North-South transportation corridor would be impossible to develop without arranging a direct rail link along the western coast of the Caspian Sea. "We are now just about to establish an international consortium to jointly design, construct and use the Kazvin-Rasht-Astara rail line in Iranian territory," the RZhD official said. A proposal dealing with the legal, financial, and technical aspects of the would-be consortium is on the table already and a decision will now have to be made, concerning the key issues of project implementation, he said.
According to Mr Zyabirov, the Russian side is interested in the speediest possible elaboration of a business plan, in cooperation with an independent advisor, and is willing to take on the financing of the feasibility studies and the business plan as part of its contribution to the consortium's pool of capital. The North-South rail corridor will boost the development of transport infrastructure and trade between Europe and Asia, he assured.
Iran is one of RZhD's most important Asian partners, Mr Zyabirov said. In 2004, the company built, with its own funds, a link between the international Caspian port of Olya, in the Volga delta, and a rail network. The link is now being used for container shipments to Iran, with the number of freight containers carried through annually having increased by 55 percent last year, to 1,500.
According to the RZhD official, the Russian side deems it necessary to have three or four transportation links with Iran, and therefore attaches a lot of importance to the restorationof a through rail line across the territory of Transcaucasian republics.
Earlier this year, transportation officials of Russia and Georgia signed an agreement for the construction of a direct international rail line between the port of Caucasus, on the Russian coast of the Kerch Strait, and the Georgian port of Poti. According to Mr Zyabirov, this agreement paves the way for Russia's new rail links with Iran.
