An official with the Railways of the Islamic Republic of Iran (RAI) said the country is planning to hold an international tender to find financers for a crucial rail link project that envisages connecting Iran’s northern city of Rasht with Azerbaijan’s Astara.

Reported by HPMM Group according to IRNA  ;   The Iranian national railway was already preparing the documents for the planned tender, Nourollah Beiranvand, the deputy for planning and investment at RAI, told Trend .

The documents will be put out to tender soon, he added.

The Rasht-Astara-Qazvin railway project envisages the construction on the territory of Iran of a new railway line connecting Azerbaijan’s Astara to the Iranian cities of Astara, Rasht and Qazvin.

Elsewhere in the interview, Beiranvand referred to Iran’s resolve to boost its transit cooperation with its neighbors, saying, ‘Iran’s rail transit witnessed a 50 percent growth and this can be promoted by the launch of the International North-South Transport Corridor’.

The corridor is planned to transport 6 million tons of cargo per year at the initial stage and 15-20 million tons of cargo in the future.

The Iranian official further said the recent developments around the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers will have no effect on the North-South corridor.

US President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Washington was walking away from the nuclear agreement, which was reached between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the US, Britain, France, Russia and China – plus Germany.

Trump also said he would reinstate US nuclear sanctions on Iran and impose ‘the highest level’ of economic bans on the Islamic Republic.