New Russia-Azerbaijan Border Railway Station To Be Built To Service INSTC

The construction of a new railway station near the Russian-Azerbaijani border will be completed by 2030, Dagestan’s Deputy Prime Minister Rizvan Gazimagomedov has stated, saying “At the Tagirkent-Kazmalyar border with Azerbaijan, which is the location of current vehicle checkpoint, the Samur-2 railway station will be built. It will be completed by 2030 and will be a border railway hub. In addition, the conversion of the Derbent-Samur-state border with Azerbaijan section on the North Caucasus Railway in Dagestan to an alternating current traction system is also scheduled for completion. Substations will be replaced, the work is already underway. It will be completed in 2028.”

Russian Railways (RZD) plans to build the new Samur-2 railway station to increase the throughput capacity of the Russian section of the North-South International Transport Corridor (ITC) to 15 million tonnes of cargo per year. The financing for the required railway infrastructure at the new Samur-2 station amounts to ₽13.7 billion (US$162.5 million).

The construction work for converting the Derbent-Samur section to alternating current is synchronized with work being carried out by Azerbaijan Railways on the Balajary-Yalama section. Total funding for the project amounts to ₽10.4 billion.

The North-South ITC connects Russia and Belarus with the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean via Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. The agreement to create this multimodal corridor was signed in 2000 by Russia, Iran and India, and it now includes 12 participating countries. The corridor consists of three routes – the western route along the western shore of the Caspian Sea, the eastern route along the eastern shore and the trans-Caspian route across the Caspian Sea. It will especially facilitate Russia-Iran trade via Azerbaijan.