Key railway in Mianeh opened
Key railway in Mianeh opened

TEHRAN (Iran news) – President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated a new railway connecting the East Azarbaijan Province’s cities of Mianeh and Bostanabad in the country’s northwest on Wednesday, a key railway that significantly boosts international transport via Iranian corridors. The new railway, part of the old Tehran-Tabriz railway, will cut the distance between the two cities, […]

TEHRAN (Iran news) – President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated a new railway connecting the East Azarbaijan Province’s cities of Mianeh and Bostanabad in the country’s northwest on Wednesday, a key railway that significantly boosts international transport via Iranian corridors.

The new railway, part of the old Tehran-Tabriz railway, will cut the distance between the two cities, and reduce travel time, IRNA reported.

The track reaches the provincial capital, Tabriz, a major business and industry hub in the region close to northwestern borders as well as the South Caucasus.

The 132-kilometer key railway is part of a long line connecting Mianeh to Tabriz.

Authorities said construction for the remaining part, a 42-kilometer line from Bostanabad to Tabriz, would conclude after March 2020.

Plans for construction of the Mianeh-Tabriz railway dubbed the “missing link” in the Iranian rail network, began 18 years ago when the government at the time sought to drastically shorten travel time between Tehran and Tabriz, currently Iran’s sixth-largest city.

Once finished, the railway would markedly boost cargo transportation from Iran’s east to the Republic of Azerbaijan and Turkey and on toward continental Europe.

Iran’s railway network has expanded rapidly over the past decade with four new provincial capitals in mostly mountainous regions connected to the network over the past six years.

Government authorities said recently that the average track-laying work across the country had increased from 120 kilometers a year in 2013 to more than 180 kilometers in 2017.

  • source : Iran Daily, Irannews