Oleg Belozyorov, president of Russian Railways, and Saeed Rasouli, head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (RAI), held talks on ways to expand cooperation in completing the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).
During the meeting, the two sides highlighted the role of the international corridor in speeding up transportation of commodities, and discussed methods to remove obstacles in the way of implementing the important route.
Russian and Iranian officials held several talks to review completion of the project, which is economically important for the three countries of Russia, the Republic of Azerbaijan and Iran.
Iran's Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali has said that the two sides agreed upon utilizing a substitute route until the 170-kilomtere-long Rasht-Astara railroad would be completed in the future. The temporary substitute route would be a combination of road, railway and ship transportation, he added.
INSTC is a 7,200-km-long multi-mode network of ship, rail, and road route for moving freight between India, Iran, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe.
There are four ports in Iran that are connected to the railway network and currently the railway system accounts for only 14 percent of transportation from and to the ports.
Connecting the ports to the railway network has been emphasized by Transport and Urban Development Ministry and also Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) over recent years.
Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Eslami has said the country is capable of boosting its capacity of transit of commodities to 50 million tons per year.