Press TV- Iran says it has transited a major consignment of tangerines from Pakistan to Kazakhstan in an initiative that could open a new corridor for shipment of food items from Southeast Asia to markets as far as Russia.
Iran’s IRNA news agency reported that the consignment that comprised 350 tonnes of tangerines had arrived in the country’s southeastern city of Zahedan by train from Pakistan’s Quetta and was already on its way to the port city of Octave in Kazakhstan. It would be then loaded on ships to be transited to Russia.
In April, the first transit consignment from Quetta was sent to Octave through the same route. It comprised potatoes, mango, tangerine and rice.
Majid Arjoni, the director general for Iran’s Southeast Railway Department, was quoted by media as saying that the country expected to transit as much as one million tonnes of goods through Zahedan-Quetta railway every year. The railway is 650 kilometers long and it takes almost 33 hours for trains to travel between the two cities.
The railway standards between Iran and Pakistan are different in terms of track width and transit consignments will have to be taken through a “Tranship Operation” when they reach the border point between the two countries.