Iran interested in cooperation with Russia

Iran's Minister of Roads and Rural Development Ali Nikzad said here Wednesday keeping in mind Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railroad's role in completion of North-South corridor; we are interested in Russians' cooperation in its construction.Focusing on the extent of physical progress of the Qazvin-Rasht-Astara railroad, Nikzad added in an interview with IRNA on Wednesday in Moscow, 'The executive phase of this great rail project is proceeding quite on schedule, relying of the strong will of the Iranian contractors and the capital of Iranian investors quite normally for the time being.' Pointing out that the completion of this project would mark a major development in the country's railroads' network on the one hand, and on the region's railroads network on the other hand, he added, 'Once this railroad is competed and connected to the Azerbaijan Republic railroad, a great cradle for passenger and cargo transfer from Europe to the Persian Gulf would be established.' He added, 'Of course, efforts aimed at implementing the projects related to the transportation corridors aimed at completing the neighboring countries' railroads networks are of special priority for Iran, and in order to reach that end, we are trying to connect all our roads and railroad to the networks of out neighboring countries.' The Road and Rural Development Minister referring to the Russian Roads and Transportation Minister's official invitation of him for a visit of Moscow said, 'In this visit we are scheduled to have meetings with the Russian officials involved in transportation fields, including my counterpart here, and the main axis of our talks is the required special conditions and technical specifications for connecting the Iranian and the Russian railroads through the Azerbaijan Republic.' He pointed out that the Russians, too, are emphasizing the need for the connection of their railroad to ours, reiterating, 'In addition to that, the Russian side has expressed interest in expansion of the naval Iran-Russia network though such ports as Amir-Abad, Anzali, and Astara, and it has been agreed that negotiations in that respect, too, would take place.' Nikzad emphasized, 'We, too, in our meetings with our Russian counterparts we would announce our readiness for full fledged and comprehensive cooperation in naval transportation, aimed at securing both nations' interests.' The Islamic Republic of Iran's Roads and Rural Development Minister Ali Nikzad and his accompanying delegation, comprised of his deputies and the Governor of Iran's Gilan Province arrived in Moscow Wednesday morning to participate at the 3rd International Conference Heavy-Lift Russia & CIS, and holding talks with Russian officials. The 2010 conference had a tremendous success gathering more than 200 delegates from Russia, Ukraine, Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium as well as: the DHL Global Forwarding, the STS Logistics, Beluga Projects Logistic, Volga-Baltic Logistic, Ust-Luga Port, Shell, John Deere, ROSNEFT, Shtokman Development AG, Dockwise Russia, Panalpina World Transport etc. Sponsors were: Chandler Shipping, Volvo and Russian Navigation Technologies. This year the conference will highlight logistics in remote areas of Siberia and Central Asia, transit facilities of Baltic and Ukraine, railway transport of heavy cargoes and new technologies. Heavy-Lift Russia& CIS is a unique opportunity to meet the leading transport and logistics operators, representatives of the largest energy, oil, gas, chemical and construction industries. Our conference is the annual and the only platform in Eastern Europe for the leading experts and managers of heavy-lift industry which contributes to mutual development, consolidates international cooperation and serves as a crucial source of latest trends in a given branch of industry.