A railway has been relaunched to link Khaf in northeastern Iran to Rozanak in Afghanistan’s Herat Province.
Launch of the strategic railway took place in a ceremony on Tuesday afternoon attended by officials from both Iran and Afghanistan.
Iran and Afghanistan had agreed on the relaunch of the project on December 2022.
The first part of the railway project was inaugurated early in December 2020. This part of the railway linked Khaf in Iran to Rozanak station in Afghanistan and the rest of the railway to Herat had yet to be completed.
Amid the political changes in Afghanistan, parts of the railway as well as Rozanak station in the country were subject to robbery and underwent damages. But the project was completed over last year and the first Iranian cargo train arrived in Afghanistan on Tuesday.
The railway project, which is seen as part of a puzzle connecting different regional countries, began in 2007.
Khaf-Herat railway is also part of a major 2,000-kilometer-long East-West railroad running through China, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Turkey to Europe.
It will also provide the landlocked Afghanistan with access to the high seas via Iranian ports in northern country.