Russian Transport Ministry mulls linking Rasht-Astara wide-gauge railway to Persian Gulf ports

MOSCOW. Nov 18 (Interfax) - The Rasht-Astara railway in Iran could be extended to ports on the Persian Gulf if a wide-gauge track is built there, Russian Deputy Transport Minister Valentin Ivanov told reporters on the sidelines of the Transport Week 2022 forum.

There are two options for this project, building a 1425 mm narrow-gauge railway or a 1520 mm wide-gauge one, he said. The railways that run throughout Iran are narrow-gauge, while the railway that runs from Russia, through Azerbaijan and ends at the border crossing in Astara is wide-gauge.

"The second option is to develop a wide-gauge. This will make it possible to do transloading in Rasht rather than at the border between Iran and Azerbaijan. There is a further prospect of developing this wide-gauge line directly to ports on the Persian Gulf," Ivanov said.

The economic viability of building a completely wide-gauge railway is now being assessed, he said. "We will do this technical part of the assessment soon. After this a decision will be made on which one it makes sense to implement," Ivanov said.