Iranian official: Tehran seeks to expand its transit advantages with  new international routes

ArmInfo.Iranian Deputy Transport and Urban Development Minister Kheirollah Khademi  at a meeting with RA Ambassador to Iran Arsen Avagyan expressed the  readiness of the Iranian side to cooperate with Armenia in the export  of technical and engineering services to complete a new communication  corridor between the two countries.

According to the press service of the Armenian Embassy in Iran,  referring to his last year's visit to Armenia to expand cooperation,  especially in the field of transport, Kheirollah Khademi  said that  Iran seeks to expand its transit advantages by building new  international routes.

"To this end, new road, rail and sea routes have been built or are  being built, which facilitate Iran's access to the North-South  International Transport Corridor and European countries, reducing  transportation time and, consequently, transportation costs," he  said.

In turn, the Armenian Ambassador expressed satisfaction with the  cooperation with Iranian companies in the field of road construction.  "Armenia welcomes cooperation with Iranian engineers and contractors.   Thanks to its valuable experience in the construction of roads,  especially bridges and tunnels, there is a readiness to build the  southern part of this corridor with the help of Iran," the diplomat  summed up.

The North-South project will reduce the distance from the Iranian  border to the Georgian border from 556 to 490 kilometers. It is  planned to build 18 bridges and 3 tunnels on the southern section of  the road alone, of which the longest will be a tunnel of 7.5 km.

The road will significantly facilitate access to the Black Sea not  only for Armenia, but also for Iran. The project was initially  financed with a loan from the Asian Development Bank. Subsequently,  the EFSD also joined the project, agreeing to provide $150 million.

It was envisaged that the construction of the highway would be  completed first in 2016, then in 2019, however, to date, only a small  part of the work has been completed and the project implementation  dates have been postponed again for 5-10 years. In general, the  project, according to various estimates, is estimated at $2 billion,  although it was originally planned to allocate only $980 million for  its implementation.

As the Armenian authorities expect, the program will allow the  country to mitigate the consequences of the blockade by Azerbaijan  and Turkey in the future, play the role of a transit state in the  cargo transportation of the countries of the region, and also join  the Black Sea ring highway.

In 2020, the project was temporarily suspended due to the coronavirus  pandemic.

At the end of September 2021, a meeting was held in Tehran to  activate the North-South ITC with the participation of the Iranian  and Russian authorities. The parties at this meeting discussed ways  to accelerate the launch of the "North-South" international transport  corridor  and attract investment to the Caspian port.