Belarus, Iran, Russia to jointly develop North–South transport corridor

Belarus, Iran and Russia will jointly develop the North–South transport corridor – as informed by the Minister of Transport and Communications, Aleksei Avramenko, following the talks in Tehran on March 13th

“We have discussed the development of the North–South corridor, which is certainly very important for us. We have agreed to develop it jointly: by Belarus, Russia and Iran. We discussed the railway route development. The Iranian side needs to build about 180km of railway to complete the North–South railway corridor in the direction of the port of Bandar Abbas. This is important for us as well, since – when talking about the transportation to Iran – we also mean the transit to the countries of the far arc through Iran," Mr. Avramenko said.

The 7,200km-long transport corridor runs from the Indian port of Nhava Sheva, in the south of Mumbai, to St. Petersburg via Iran. Its main advantages over other routes (in particular, the sea route through the Suez Canal) include a reduction in the distance of transportation, as well as lower transportation costs.  

In addition, an agreement establishing a non-permissive procedure for international road cargo transportation for Belarusian and Iranian carriers was signed in Tehran.