Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Deputy Minister of Transport and Urban Development of Iran H. Khademi said that within 3 months the construction of the border section of the Haf - Herat railway will be completed.

The Haf-Herat railway (190-225 km) is part of the Iran-Afghanistan railway corridor. The project began in 2008.

Construction of the Haf - Herat railway section will allow:

1) expand trade between the two countries and the states of Central Asia;

2) reduce transit costs and speed up the collection and delivery of goods;

3) Afghanistan will be able to join the European railway network through the territory of Iran and Turkey. 

In addition, the Ministry of Transport of Afghanistan expects that after the launch of this section for the first time in 5 years, the volume of freight traffic by rail will amount to 6.5 million tons, and the annual income of Kabul from the implementation of the project will be US$64 million. In this context, the Ministry of Finance of Afghanistan stated that a new customs terminal will be built on this section of the railway, which will facilitate the implementation of import and export operations between Iran and the IRA.

It is also noteworthy that, according to Kazakh media reports, since 2019, Nur-Sultan has been actively involved in the implementation of this project. Thus, the IRA Railways Administration signed an agreement with the Kazakhstani company Inkon-KZ for the construction of 43 km of this section of the railway. It is noted that the Kazakh side will carry out the construction of a road passing through the counties of Goryan, Zenda Jan and Injil and adjacent to the district of Rabat Paryan (the Kazakh side has allocated 58.5 million dollars).

According to the statement of the Deputy Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development of Kazakhstan T. Toktabaev,

Nur-Sultan also plans to build several cargo terminals on the territory of the IRA, and will also supply 350 thousand tons of rails for construction. Experts believe that by such measures the Kazakh side plans, on the one hand, to become an active player in the Afghan direction, on the other, to assist in the integration of Kabul into the economic processes in Central Asia.

In general, experts emphasize that the full launch of the Haf-Herat railway will contribute to gaining access to Kabul to the port of Chabahar, as well as the development of economic cooperation between the IRA and India and the countries of Central Asia.