Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday opened a new railroad connecting the two provinces of Qazvin and Gilan.

Iran Press/Iran news: At the ceremony that was held during Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Gilan province, the President was briefed by the project managers on the construction process and the services to be provided.

Speaking at the ceremony, President Hassan Rouhani appreciated friendly, neighboring countries such as Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Iraq, adding, “The Qazvin-Rasht Railway had many complexities in terms of engineering, but was run in the best way possible.”

The railroad project—164-kilometer-long—is crucial in that it is one of the missing links in the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), which will facilitate the transportation of goods from Mumbai in India to Helsinki in Finland upon completion, using Iranian ports and railroads. 

A rail route connecting Rasht to Astara on the border with Azerbaijan is another missing link along the INSTC.

INSTC would substantially cut the travel time for everything from Asian consumer goods to Central Asia’s natural resources to advanced European exports.

INSTC is a 7,200-km-long multi-mode network of ship, rail, and road route for moving freight between India, Iran, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe. 101

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