ARMENIA-IRAN RAILWAY TO GIVE ARMENIA ACCESS TO PERSIAN GULF

Central Asia General Newswire
April 6, 2009 Monday 3:46 PM MSK

Armenia and Iran have signed a memorandum on a project to lay a
railway between them, a line that would be Armenia’s only rail link
to the outside world.

The planned railway would give landlocked Armenia access to the
Persian Gulf and Iranian ports, Iranian Roads and Transportation
Minister Hamed Behbahani told a briefing.

Behbahani and Armenian Transportation and Communications Minister
Gurgen Sarkisian signed the document on behalf of their countries.

A working group would take one to one and a half years to map out the
route for the line and prepare a feasibility study for the project,
Behbahani said. Laying the line would take between three and four
years, he said.

The line might be 470 kilometers long, including the Iranian stretch
of 60 kilometers, Behbahani said.

Sarkisian told the same briefing the railway would have more than a
regional significance and would in effect "be a continuation of the
Silk Road."

Beside Iran, Armenia borders Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia.

Armenia’s rail communication with Azerbaijan and Turkey has been
blocked off for years. Nor has there been any rail traffic between
Armenia and Russia since the August 2008 conflict in Georgia as the
only railway linking Armenia to Russia passes through Georgia.