TEHRAN - Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Eslami and his Afghan counterpart Mohammad Yama Shams discussed the details of the completion and the inauguration of Khaf-Herat railway project.

In the meeting, which was held through video conference on Wednesday, the officials discussed several issues including the inauguration of the project, the financial issues, insurance services, manpower training, freight and passenger transportation, customs, technical and security issues, etc., the portal of Iran’s Transport Ministry reported.

Speaking in the meeting, Eslami stressed the need to pay attention to the details and various aspects of the contracts for the operation of the Khaf-Herat railway, and said: "High goals can be established for this railway line."

“The work is not done with the construction and operation of this railway line…. it is the starting point and the cornerstone for the development of strategic relations between the two friendly and neighboring nations,” Eslami said.

Khaf-Herat railway which is part of the Iran-Afghanistan rail corridor connects Iran’s eastern city of Khaf to Afghanistan’s western city of Ghoryan.

The construction of the 193-kilomeres-long railway, which is underway in four parts began in 2007.  

In a meeting with Afghanistan’s Acting Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar in Tehran on June 22, Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said that the third section of Khaf-Herat railway project which connects the rail networks of Iran and Afghanistan will come on stream in the third quarter of the current Iranian calendar year (September 22-December 20).

In early July, Iranian and Afghan officials held a committee meeting to investigate the ways to complete Khaf-Herat railway.

Afghan official with Herat Governor's Office Jilani Farhad told IRNA that the joint committee was set up following the emphasis of the Afghan president to accelerate construction and completion of the project considering its significance to improve transit between Iran and Afghanistan.

Two parts of the railway (77 km), which is located in Iran, has been completed a long time ago but the two other parts (116 km), on the Afghan soil, are yet to be worked out.

EF/MA