Despite the current situation, Iran is a key part of the push to develop the Southern Corridor, part of the INSTC. The Islamic Republic along with Central Asian countries is working through various forums and organisations to move the game changing project along, Nargiza Umarova, Head of the Center for Strategic Connectivity at the Institute for Advanced International Studies, told RailFreight.com.
“It is not only Iran that is promoting the Southern Railway Corridor, but also the Central Asian states. Uzbekistan, in particular, is playing an active role,” Umarova said in an interview. Tashkent introduced cargo trains along the Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Turkey route in 2022, she pointed out and is now doing more.
“Uzbekistan is holding consultations with Iran and Turkey on how to make the most of the Southern Corridor’s potential, in both bilateral and multilateral formats,” she said adding “this topic was thoroughly discussed at a ministerial meeting between Uzbekistan, Iran and Turkey during the second Transport Ministers’ meeting of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states in Istanbul.”
This builds on regular meetings between the heads of the railway administrations of China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, and Turkiye, where the discussions are serious, detailed and commercial. “At the inaugural meeting in Tehran in May 2025, a preliminary agreement establishing uniform transport tariffs along the Southern Railway Corridor, as well as measures to increase freight volumes, including standardized delivery times and simplified procedures,” Umarova said.
Moving things forward via a coordinating body.
What Umarova believes is needed now is a coordinating body to keep up the pace of developments. “This is necessary in order to consolidate the efforts of stakeholders when addressing a wide range of legal, economic and technical issues,” she said – although there is a debate about what format this would take
“In the case of the Southern Corridor, I believe that an intergovernmental coordinating structure would be most appropriate. As I mentioned previously, Uzbekistan has taken the lead in establishing the Council for the Integration of Railway Spaces of SCO Countries. The participating countries will most likely be represented by the heads of relevant ministries or agencies,” she added.
Big gains for infrastructure and trade.
What is at stake is a huge new piece of infrastructure as well as the movement of huge amounts of cargo. The potential capacity of the Southern Corridor between Central Asia and the EU is estimated at 10 million tons per year, Umarova told RailFreight.
That number could rise by 50% to 15 million tons per year when the electrification and construction of additional track segments along the 1,000-kilometre railway section from Sarakhs on the Turkmenistan border to Razi on the Turkish border is completed, added Umarova. This is a joint project between Iran and China, she further added.
Many challenges ahead
Like many experts Umarova is not blind to the many challenges the Southern Corridor faces to become a reality and supplies a lengthy list of them headed by differences in technical standards. “Iranian railways operate on a 1435 mm gauge, whereas Central Asian countries use a 1520 mm gauge. This necessitates the replacement of bogies (rearranging wagons) at border crossings, which incurs additional costs for freight transport along the route,” she said. Other issues mentioned were the lack of integration between the Iranian and Central Asian railway spaces, lack of unified transportation documentation, lack of tools for harmonizing rolling stock and transportation processes and sanctions against Iran.
Bottlenecks
But the geography of the route is also a problem and not just its length. “The main bottleneck of the Southern Corridor is currently the need to transfer cargo across Lake Van in Turkey,” said Umarova. This prevents the corridor from being entirely rail-based and explains the decision to construct the Marand–Cheshmeh Soraya railway line in Iran, with an extension to the Turkish border region of Aralık. On top of this she noted some sections of Iran’s railways are single-track and require electrification. Investment is needed to address these issues but pointed out these issues are being addressed through cooperation with China and Turkmenistan.
Costs will be huge
All this has a huge price tag made more difficult by the sanctions imposed on one of the principal countries Iran whose every move is seemingly overshadowed by another barrage of sanctions. “However, private and foreign investment (including from Turkey, China, India and some Gulf countries) is being attracted in some cases, particularly in the development of transit routes,” said Umarova.
Iran’s key role
In 2025, Iran’s Ministry of Roads and Urban Development announced plans to create nine transit railway corridors at an estimated cost of over 10 billion USD, to be financed by a percentage of oil sales, said Umarova. What is striking is some of these projects are linked to Afghanistan, including the Five Nations Railway Corridor (Iran-Afghanistan-Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan-China).
In 2020, Iran completed the first three stages of the Khaf–Herat railway with the final section scheduled to open in 2026. Construction of a 1435 mm gauge railway between the Afghan cities of Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif has also been announced. “Iran is ready to allocate an unprecedented sum of 2,5 billion USD for these projects,” said Umarova.