TEHRAN- Transport and Urban Development Deputy Minister Abbas Khatibi said the Khaf-Herat railway project has been completed and will be officially inaugurated through video conference on December 10.

The official announced that the inauguration ceremony will be attended by the presidents of the two countries as well as the two sides’ transport ministers.

The 193-kilometers-long Khaf-Herat is part of the Iran-Afghanistan rail corridor. The project started in the fiscal year of 2007-2008, connects Iran’s eastern city of Khaf to Afghanistan’s western city of Ghoryan.

Iran was in charge of completing three of the mentioned four parts which are in the Iranian territory and the fourth part is the responsibility of the Afghan side.

The first two parts of the railway (77 km) were completed two years ago and the third part has been recently completed.

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 the Khaf-Herat railway project will be completed 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 said 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.

Khaf-Herat line is part of the much bigger East-West Railway Corridor project which extends from China to Europe through Iran and Afghanistan.

Iran and Afghanistan have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with five other countries which are in the way of the East-West corridor and further negotiations are still ongoing in this regard.

EF/MA