ALMATY. March 14 (Interfax-Kazakhstan) - A railroad link opened between Almaty and Tehran when train No. 19/20 Almaty - Tashkent - Turkmenabad - Seraks - Meshked - Tehran departed from Almaty-2 station on Thursday evening. In line with a memorandum signed by the Iranian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkish, Turkmen and Uzbek railroad administrations in Baku on October 31, 2001, the link will be extended to Istanbul when a railroad is built around Lake Van. The train will cover the 3,300-kilometer route to Tehran through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Iran in 68 hours. Both tourists and businessmen are likely to use the route, the Kazakh Railroad Company believes.