Head of Iran's Cultural heritage, Handicrafts and tourism Organization (ICHHTO) Massoud Soltanifar said the joint railway of Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan will help expand transportation, exports, imports and tourism activities in the region.
"The international railway of the Central Asia will help expand transportation, exports, imports and tourism," Soltanifar told reporters on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan railway at Inche-Boroun borderline city on Wednesday.
He pointed to the importance of the troika railway for Iran and the Central Asian countries, and said, "The inauguration of this railway is an important event that has taken place for Iran and the Central Asia, which paves the way for good economic relations."
Soltanifar underlined that the Central Asian countries are the most important target countries in terms of tourist attraction for Iran, and said, "Many Central Asians like to visit Iran's tourist, cultural, treatment and health tourism facilities."
The joint railway, in the East of the Caspian Sea, linking Iran to Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan came into operation on Wednesday morning.
The inauguration ceremony of the troika railway was held at the presence of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Turkmen and Kazakh counterparts in Inche-Boroun on Iran-Turkmenistan joint borderline.
The length of the railway is about 908 km of which 120 km is in Kazakhstan, 700 in Turkmenistan and 88 km in Iran.
The railway route connects the Commonwealth of the Independent States (CIS) countries to the Persian Gulf and the South East Asian nations.