THE CONSTRUCTION OF IRAN-ARMENIA RAILWAY URGENT
Vasak Tarposhyan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
26 Aug 2008
Armenia

After the reconstruction of the bridge on Georgia-Armenia railway,
the regular load on its way to Armenia was blasted over again, this
time 10 km from Gory to Khashury. The blast took place when the train
was passing the bridge. The loads were not previewed for Armenia they
were Azerbaijani wagons loaded with fuel.

Unlike the previous one the railway was not damaged seriously. As we
were informed from the Ministry of Transportation the railway has
been reconstructed. A new schedule of transporting the loads has
been elaborated.

They hope in the Ministry that in case no new incidents happen today
35 wagons loaded with wheat will reach Armenia.

This is the third blast within ten days. As we know on August 16
the railway 40 km far from Gory has been bombarded. Taking into
consideration the long term previewed for the reconstruction of the
bridge it was decided to launch the small part of that sector.

The launch of the temporary sector is also important because
the mentioned terms of the reconstruction of this bridge are very
different. That is why it is not yet clear when the railway will be
completely reconstructed. In such circumstances the launch of the
passing line is indispensable.

But it was followed by two blasts, which luckily didn’t damage the
bridge seriously. Thi s fact proves that the Georgian railway is not
safe, at least at this stage.

In such circumstances the automobile load-transportation will most
probably be launched in order to bring some emergency goods. Thousand
tones of fuel and wheat have already been brought to Armenia by this
road (by the way both by Georgia and Iran). The transportation of
Turkmenistan fuel via Iran has been restarted.

It is very difficult to say how long will the loads be transferred to
Armenia by automobile road, because everything depends on Georgian –
Osatian conflict, where the situation is not very clear.

No doubt, the situation will go from bad to worse because of
the incidents taking place in the region. In the existing limited
conditions of railway communication the non-operation of the Georgian
railway can have a serious impact on the economy and first of all the
export. Especially as we know the automobile load transportation is
much more expensive than the railway. That is why not only can its
absence make the internal market expensive, but also influence the
foreign competitiveness of the local products.

In such circumstances the necessity of having new railway communication
options with the world is becoming indispensable. Iran-Armenia
railway can serve as one option. The so-called obligatory demurrage
of the Georgian railway force to make the works in this direction
more active. At this stage they are in process on the level of the
working groups from the both countries. In September the meeting of
those groups is previewed during which the latter will sum up the
implemented work and plan their future activity.

Georgian-Osatian conflict displayed that alternative railway knot is
indispensable for Armenia.