On Friday, within the framework of the IV business forum of the ECO member states, a memorandum of understanding was signed on railway cooperation between Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Iran, which is aimed at increasing the load on the railway between the three countries, Tehran News reported.
The trilateral memorandum was signed in accordance with the agreement reached a month ago between the head of the Iranian Railways (RAI) Miad Salehi and the chairman of the Turkmen Railways agency Azat Atamuradov.
Miad Salehi said that in accordance with this memorandum, it is envisaged that a joint working group will be formed between the three countries to achieve the goal of increasing the volume of goods passing along the transit route. Among the tasks to be solved in the near future are: increasing exports and transit flows, doubling the exchange of rail freight traffic from the Serahs border, restoring the Artyk-Lyutfabad border crossing and organizing a dialogue between the leadership of the railway departments of the three states.
The construction of the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway began in 2009. The official opening of the railway took place in 2014. The length of the railway is 925 km. The territory of Iran runs 85 km, the length of the Turkmen section is 700 km, the Kazakh section - 140 km.
The aforementioned business forum was held on the eve of the 15th summit of the Organization for Economic Cooperation, which will begin on November 28 in Ashgabat.
