ADB to announce tender in April to choose company to develop feasibility project for armenia-iran railway

YEREVAN, January 28, /ARKA/. A deputy Armenian transport and communications minister said Wednesday the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will announce an international tender in April to choose a company to develop a feasibility project for construction of Armenia-Iran railway. He was speaking at a second meeting of a trilateral force task, including Armenian, Iranian and Russian experts, who met in Yerevan, to discuss the ambitious project.

Last year the ADB released a $1 million grant to Armenia for conduction of a preliminary feasibility study of the project, which was assigned to an Austrian company. The deputy minister said talks were underway with ADB and World Bank.

Iranian deputy road and transport minister Madjid Asadi said the Iranian side has accomplished a preliminary study of the Iranian 60-km section of the proposed road.

According to some estimates, construction of the 470-kilometer rail link, the bulk of it passing through Armenian territory, will take at least three years and cost up to $2 billion. Armenia and Iran hope to attract much of the required funding from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).  -0-