Russia and Iran will sign an agreement on April 1 to begin construction of the final section of the western route railway of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), which will include the Rasht-Astara railway line, according to Russian Minister of Energy and co-chairman of the Russian-Iranian Intergovernmental Commission, Sergei Tsivilev.
We can already confidently say that from April 1, we are moving into the implementation phase of this large-scale infrastructure project.
Sergei Tsivilev also noted that the parties have worked out all the key issues related to the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway, including the registration of land plots and obtaining the necessary benefits.
The INSTC is a multimodal route of 7,200 kilometers connecting St. Petersburg with the Indian port of Mumbai. The corridor runs along three routes: the Trans-Caspian route, using the ports of Russia and Iran, the western route through Azerbaijan, and the eastern route through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The INSTC includes sea, road, and rail routes.
On May 17, 2023, an agreement was signed in Tehran between Russia and Iran on the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway line within the framework of the International North-South Transport Corridor. The total cost of the project is €1.6 billion, of which €1.3 billion will be provided by Russia, and the remaining amount will be covered by the Iranian side.