China will study the technical and socio-economic aspects of the Iran-Armenia railway construction project, Karen Chshmarityan, Armenian Minister of Economy, told journalists on September 25, when commenting on the Armenian governmental delegation's visit to China.
He said that Head of the Chinese Government Li Keqiang has instructed the Ministry of Commerce and Trade to study all the aspects of the given project with due regard for the cargo transportation that may be carried out by rail. Chshmarityan said that China shows interest in construction of the Iran-Armenia railway and if it finds the project economically beneficial, it will agree to partially fund it in order to link the Chinese transport infrastructure to the European one. "I think China will shortly agree to allocate 3.2 bln USD for construction of the railway section," said the minister.
To note, in Jan 2013 South Caucasus Railway, Armenia's Transport and Communication Ministry and Rasia FZE signed a memorandum of mutual understanding on development of the Southern Railway of Armenia. The project is supposed to be finished in 2022. Its estimated cost is $3.5bln. The length of the railway will be 305 km in the territory of Armenia. It will have 86 bridges and 60 tunnels.