15:58 05/03/2018

China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, which is specialized in railway construction contracting, shows interest in the Iran-Armenian-railway project, the head of the Eurasian bureau at the corporation stated today at a meeting on Monday with Minister of Transport, Communication and Information Technologies of Armenia Vahan Martorisyan.

As the ministry reported in a release, the Chinse executive noted that the issue will be raised at the Chinese ministry of trade with a view to include the railway project in "One belt One Road" initiative - a massive transport infrastructure envisaging a network of railroads and shipping lanes linking China with 70 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania.

To remind, the Armenian and Iranian governments officially approved the railway project in 2009, but they were confronted with the problem of finding concrete financing sources for the railway that would cross most of the Armenian territory. According to an informal estimation, the project would need between USD 1 and 4 Billion.

According to the source, the minister noted that the construction of the railway is of strategic significance for Armenia and expressed readiness to discuss the project with the ministry of trade of Chine. Upon the positive course of the discussions the sides will be ready to launch technical and economic studies of the project, the source said.