New transport corridor in Iran to link Turkmenistan, Iraq, Turkey

Construction of Iran’s East-West Transport Corridor, linking Turkmenistan, Iraq and Turkey, will be completed by the next Iranian year (beginning on March 21, 2020), ISNA reports citing Iran’s Deputy Minister of Road and Urban Development and CEO of Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company Kheyrollah Khademi, Business Turkmenistan reports.

“The corridor starts from Sarakhs which shares border with Turkmenistan and reaches to Mashhad and ultimately Tehran,” said Khademi. “The corridor separates into two branches that one of them goes to northwest and Tabriz, while the other goes to west and links Tehran to Hamedan and then Sanandaj.”

The Minister added that along the corridor, they are also constructing a 105 km four way highway to Bashmaq border. “The road will be exploited by next year and links Iran’s western and eastern neighbors to each other,” the official continued.

Tejen-Sarakhs-Mashhad railway, commisioned in 1996, operates along the above mentioned corridor. The railway, built by Turkmenistan and Iran, links Central Asian, Russian, and European rail systems with South Asia and the Persian Gulf.