After being held up behind Incheh Boriun border checkpoint for around four months due to the outbreak of Covid-19, 30 wagons loaded with Iranian commodities were given permission to cross the border with neighboring Turkmenistan on Tuesday, according to the spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration.
Iranian export goods entering Turkmenistan weighed a total of 1,950 tons.
“Another 101 wagons carrying cement, plastic, tiles, ceramics, glass, rebars, urban furniture and mineral stones are also waiting for Turkmen officials’ permission to enter the border,” Rouholla Lotfi was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
The official noted that six wagons were let into Turkmenistan on the same day through Lotfabad checkpoint.
Last Thursday, 30 wagons got the permit to enter the neighboring country through Sarakhs border crossing after being held up for two and a half months.
“Sarakhs border checkpoint had been closed since April 1, due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, as a result of which some 770 trucks were held up behind the border until Thursday. With 30 of them entering the border, there are still 740 trucks waiting for permits,” Latifi was also quoted as saying by ILNA.
The checkpoint, located in Iran’s eastern Khorasan Razavi Province, is the main export route to Central Asian countries.
Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami and his Turkmen counterpart Gandymov Rahim Nurgeldiyevich jointly inaugurated Sarakhs Transit Bridge on the border of the two countries through videoconferencing earlier this month.
The construction of the 96-meter-long, 15-meter-wide transit bridge, which connects Sarakhs in Iran with its namesake city in Turkmenistan through Tajan River started in the year ending March 2016 as per an agreement signed in Tehran on Nov. 22, 2015, in a ceremony attended by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow.
According to Eslami, the new structure would facilitate the movement of 1,000 vehicles per day.
“The two-way bridge would play a key role in improving trade between Tehran and Ashgabat while it would also pave the way for the implementation of Ashgabat Agreement and help Iran expand its economic ties with Central Asia countries,” he was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.
Iran and Turkmenistan are members of Ashgabat Agreement—a multimodal transport agreement signed in 2011, which envisages the facilitation of goods transit and transportation between Central Asia and Persian Gulf.
The opening of Sarakhs Bridge comes as Iran and Turkmenistan have yet to fully open their borders after more than three months of closure following the coronavirus outbreak.
Eslami hoped that rail and road transportation will resume at the three border crossings of Sarakhs, Lotfabad and Incheh Borun between Iran and Turkmenistan as soon as possible.
“Iran is all set to exchange views about new transportation projects with other Central Asian countries, particularly Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan,” he said.
Latifi noted that the export of agricultural products and foodstuff to Turkmenistan continues to be banned while nonperishable goods can be dispatched to that country.
Iran and Turkmenistan have three border checkpoints, Sarakhs and Lotfabad in the northeastern Khorasan Razavi Province and Incheh Boroun in the northern Golestan Province.
