Astara–Rasht–Qazvin railway

[1] The most challenging section from an engineering point of view was the construction of the railway between Rasht and Ghazvin which started in 2009 [2] and took nearly a decade to complete.

On 22 November 2018, a test train ran for the first time on that 164 km section of the line[3] whose formal opening ceremony was held on 6 March 2019 with the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Shahin Mustafayev plus officials from Pakistan and Iraq in attendance.

[11] As of early 2019, the construction of the 130 km Rasht-Astara leg remained at a 'study and review stage' but with approval granted in Iran as of January[12] and around half of the estimated cost ($1.1 billion) secured by a preferential loan of $500 million from Azerbaijan.

Some press reports claimed that track laying should be complete by around 2023[13] whilst others hinted that as of the ECO meeting of 17 December 2019,[14] no physical construction had yet commenced.

[15] In November 2020 the Iranian ambassador to Russia was quoted as calling for a rapid completion of the Astara Rasht line as an economic imperative.