Iran settles old railway debt with Turkmenistan

Iran has paid all its railway debts to Turkmenistan, the Tehran Times reports.

"International railway debts that remained unpaid for over 10 years have been paid to Russia and Turkmenistan," the paper quoted  head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways Miad Salehi as saying. 

Experts told Daryo that the Zhanaozen (Kazakhstan) - Bereket (Turkmenistan) - Gorgan (Iran) railway was launched in 2014. This $1.4bn project was partly supported by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB).

Along this trade route, goods can move freely from China to the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean countries and exported to Europe, reducing the transport distance by 600km. However, with a capacity of 10mn tonnes of cargo per year, until recently only a tenth of this volume has been used.

Eziz Boyarov