China is interested in Armenia -Iran railway link project

Armenia’s Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technology Vahan Martirosyan had a meeting with Jian Aiming, the head of the Department for Eurasian Affairs of the Chinese Civil Engineering Corporation, who said that the Corporation was interested in the project designed to build a railway link between Armenia and Iran.br / br /

YEREVAN, March 5. /ARKA/. Armenia’s Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technology Vahan Martirosyan had a meeting with Jian Aiming, the head of the Department for Eurasian Affairs of the Chinese Civil Engineering Corporation, who said that the Corporation was interested in the project designed to build a railway link between Armenia and Iran.br

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Aiming was quoted as saying in a press release that China’s Ministry of Commerce would nbsp;discuss the inclusion of this project in the One Belt, One Road program. He added that after the discussions were over, the Corporation would be ready to conduct a feasibility study of the project.br

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Martirosyan, in turn, stressed that the railway construction is of strategic importance for Armenia and expressed readiness to discuss this issue with the China’s minister of trade.br

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The agreement on the construction of the rail link was approved by Armenian and Iranian governments in 2009. In 2012, the Dubai-based Rasia FZE Investment Company was granted a 50-year concession by the Armenian government to build and manage the 305-kilometer railway from Armenia to Iran, to be named the Southern Armenian Railway (SAR).nbsp;br

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By late 2013 Rasia FZE developed a feasibility study for the project, estimated to cost $3.5 billion. The high cost is explained by mountainous terrain through which it is supposed to pass. Specifically, the 305 km-long railway was to have 19.6 km-long 64 bridges and 60 tunnels of 102.3 kilometers.nbsp;br

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The Armenian government said that the railway was to run from Gagarin station in Armenia’s Gegharkunik province to Agarak in southern Syunik and may transport up to 25 million cargo a year. nbsp;It was also said to provide for the shortest transportation route from the ports of the Black Sea to the ports of the Persian Gulf and nbsp;establish a major commodities transit corridor between Europe and the Persian Gulf region.” .-0- -0-nbsp;br

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