IRANIAN OFFICIAL SAYS MORE PEOPLE TRAVELLING VIA BILEHSAVAR BORDER CHECKPOINT

Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA)
Sept 4 2008
Iran

Bilehsavar, Ardabil: The head of the Bilehsavar border [checkpoint]
in Moghan has said that this year, the number of passengers travelling
– through the border via the Bilehsavar customs checkpoint – between
Baku and Naxcivan has increased.

Because the roads are shut between the cities of Baku and Naxcivan
in the Karabakh region by Armenians, passengers of this route are
travelling between the two cities through Bilehsavar.

Speaking to an IRNA reporter on Thursday [4 September], Lotfollah
Baba’i said that so far this year, over 12,000 passengers have
travelled along this route via the Bilehsavar customs checkpoint,
using 349 buses.

He said that every day at least two buses from Baku to Naxcivan and
back use the Bilehsavar customs checkpoint.

He said that the reasons for the increase in the travel were: an
increase in the number of entrances and exits for lorries at Moghan’s
Bilehsavar customs checkpoint, the travel by Turkish lorries using
the Bilehsavar customs checkpoint because [this route is] suitable
and fast, the creation of cargo facilities and also the building of
facilities where people of Naxcivan can purchase items of general
demand at the Bilehsavar customs checkpoint, the transhiping and
fast sending of goods to other countries and the removal of extra
requirements, and the fact that there is no waiting time at the
Bilehsavar customs checkpoint.

The city of Bilehsavar in Moghan is located 155 km north of Ardabil,
and borders the Azerbaijani Republic.