Armenia satisfied with releasing its railways to Russia

Armenian Minister for Transport and Communications Gurgen Sarkisian has stated that one of the big transport issues of 2008 was to give to Russian railways 30 year management rights to Armenian railways.

Russian railways took on the responsibility to invest around USD 576 million in the Armenian railway infrastructure. Of this nearly USD 196 million will be expended in the coming five years. So far the new management body, in the name of South Caucasus Railways, has renovated 5 of the 23 available locomotives and 35 out of the 1000 carriages.

The new project the country is supporting is the Iran-Armenia railway connection. Iran is also ready to finance this project and there are ongoing negotiations with several financial organizations who have expressed an interest in co-financing this project.