Lotfabad Border Reopens for Trade With Turkmenistan

Iran’s Lotfabad Customs Terminal in Khorasan Razavi Province’s Dargaz County, which facilitates trade with Turkmenistan, reopened on Tuesday after nine months of closure due to the outbreak of Covid-19. 
Noting that businesspeople will be able to transit and trade goods from Iran to Turkmenistan as of Dec. 1, Spokesperson of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration Rouhollah Latifi said, “Rail transit was already ongoing through Sarakhs in Khorasan Razavi Province and Incheh Borun in Golestan. A limited number of transit trucks can also cross Sarakhs into Turkmenistan. With the reopening of Lotfabad Customs Terminal, three out of four border crossings with the neighboring country have resumed operations.” 
“Each day, 10 transit trucks are allowed to leave Iran for Turkmenistan and then to other destinations via Lotfabad”, he was quoted as saying by IRNA. 
Sarakhs, Bajgiran, Lotfabad and Incheh Borun are land border crossings with Turkmenistan in the east of Caspian Sea and northeastern Iran. 
In June, 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. 
The construction of this 96-meter-long, 15-meter-wide transit bridge, which connects Turkmenistan’s Sarakhs to Iran’s Sarakhs on the Tajan River started in the year ending March 2016 as per an agreement signed in Tehran on Nov. 22, 2015, by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and his Turkmen counterpart, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow.