Abbas Akhoundi Archives - Iran News Daily

Iran’s Road Minister Abbas Akhoundi resigns

reporter 1222 — Sat, 20 Oct 2018 12:45:53 +0000

Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi has resigned.

In a letter addressed to President Hassan Rouhani, Akhoundi announced his resignation and asked the president to accept his decision. This is while he had resigned on three previous occasions.

Akhoundi said disagreements in urban redevelopment were the reason for his resignation.

The letter, dated Sep. 1, was published a few hours after he attended the ceremony of signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Management and Planning Organization of Iran on redeveloping the urban texture.

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Road min., Army cmdr. vow to expand coop.

reporter 1222 — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 07:15:01 +0000

Commander-in-Chief of Iran’s Army Major General Mousavi and Iranian Roads Minister Akhoundi met on Sunday in Tehran and agreed to expand cooperation between the two entities.

Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi and Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi, the Commander-in-Chief of Iran’s Army, exchanged views on the ways to expand cooperation and increase synergy between the ministry and the army.

The two met on Sunday after Akhoundi, at the head of a delegation comprised of his deputies and road ministry’s officials, paid an official visit to the army HQ in Tehran.

While a host of senior commanders of the army were present in the meeting, the two sides discussed the areas that the two entities can jointly work on and help each other to better serve the masses of the people. Finally they reached some agreements which are expected to be followed up by relevant officials.

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Tehran-Bandar Abbas railway project to be electrified, costing $3bn

reporter 1222 — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 07:45:15 +0000

Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi said that Tehran-Bandar Abbas railway project would be electrified, costing $3 billion dollars.

Once the aforementioned railway project is put into operation, the country will witness a giant development in rail transport industry, he maintained.

Speaking in an expert-level meeting in the presence of members of Parliament Industries and Mines Commission, held in the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways, he added, “the speed of passenger and freight trains stands at between 160 and 65-70 km per hour respectively. Once this rail line is electrified, speed of trains will increase up by 200 km at large.”

With the development of mines in the country in the next 10 years, freight capacity in railway sector will increase up by 200 million tons, he emphasized.

About 30.2 billion tons of cargo per kilometer was transported via rail network in the country in the past year (ended March 20, 2018), so that less fuel was consumed in this respect which is much more economical than the transit of cargoes via road.

Rail transit depreciation is negligible as compared to the road network, Akhoundi highlighted.

The volume of transit around metropolitans hit seven billion trips per annum, one billion of which is done via vehicles in Tehran urban and suburban areas, he opined.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he pointed to Chabahar-Zahedan rail line project and said, “despite many shortfalls and bottlenecks facing ahead, construction operation of this giant project is underway.”

He put the current physical progress of this railway project at more than 50%.

It is expected that this project will be financed through international resources, the roads minister concluded.

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Commercialization of North-South corridor, atop agenda

reporter 1222 — Sat, 05 May 2018 06:10:57 +0000

“With possessing suitable transport infrastructures in various sectors, Islamic Republic of Iran plays an important role in growth and development of business in Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) region especially landlocked countries, “he maintained.

Speaking in the 9th Transport Ministerial Meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), held in the port of Türkmenbaşy, he stated, “the Ministerial Meeting on the transportation of North-South corridor will be held in Oct. 2018 in Tehran and issues related to the commercialization of this corridor, tariff regulation and other relevant issues will be studied meticulously in an expert-level session.”

He pointed to the inauguration of the first phase of Chabahar Port Development Project with its current capacity of eight million tons and said, “development project of Chabahar Port will be launched in cooperation with foreign parties as joint venture.”

Special transit route of Chabahar Port in connecting East Asia to the Indian Subcontinent and Afghanistan to the Central Asia, Russia and Europe will greatly contribute to the prosperity of the regional and international transit route and consequently, the ease of trade and business activities in this region, Akhoundi maintained.

Necessary preliminaries and mechanisms to study commercialization of North-South rail corridor between Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran will be finalized soon, he said, adding, “I hope that Ministerial Meeting of transportation of countries located in corridors of China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran, which connect China to Iran and Europe using this transit route, will be held in Afghanistan significantly.”

In conclusion, Iranian Roads Minister Akhoundi placed special emphasis on accelerating implementation of Transit Transport Framework Agreement (TTFA) plan, removing non-physical barriers and unnecessary formalities in transportation and transit as well as operating rail and road corridors in ECO region, etc.

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Road min. survives another no-confidence vote

reporter 1222 — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 05:30:56 +0000

Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi managed to win the vote of confidence of the members of parliament after a session of tense of impeachment.

During the afternoon meeting of Iranian parliament on Tuesday, 92 lawmakers voted in favor of Akhoundi’s impeachment, 152 against and 2 in abstention. According to law, votes in abstention for impeachment sessions are considered as votes against. Mr. Akhoundi will therefore remain in office as votes in favor of impeachment need to be higher than votes against.

It is the third time that Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi survives a motion of no confidence.

The impeachment session for Minister of Agriculture Mahmoud Hojjati will be held on Wednesday.

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Indians to invest $2 billion in Iran’s port, railways

reporter 1222 — Sat, 17 Feb 2018 17:02:13 +0000

Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development, who is accompanying President Rouhani on his trip to India, announced on Saturday that Indians have expressed their initial agreement to invest $ 2 billion in Iran’s ports and railways.

Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Ahmad Akhoundi said that Indians have expressed their initial agreement to invest in Iranian ports and railways network, adding that various issues in the port and rail areas will be finalized during Rouhani’s visit to India, and the joint venture with India in these two areas will reach about $2 billion through these projects.

The agreement was inked Friday in India’s capital New Delhi in the presence of Abbas Akhoundi, Iran’s minister of roads and urban development, and his Indian counterpart Nitin Gadkari. The project will be fully implemented within three years.

Gadkari, in turn, said the new trains will help transport passengers and freight in Iran, adding that “they will also be used in the Chabahar-Zahedan railroad to accelerate development of the Chabahar Port in line with India’s goal to connect to Central Asia and ultimately Europe through this Iranian port.”

He said that Iran’s cooperation with India in port and rails have been planned to take place in four categories. The two sides have already reached general agreement in this regard, and the agreements will be finalized during Rouhani’s current trip to India.

He said that one of the categories is India’s investment in Chabahar-Zahedan railway line. He stressed that this is an important and strategic railway line, which Iran wants to complete through cooperation with the Indians. He said that initial agreement has been reached for an amount of $800 million, and the agreement will be finalized and announced during Rouhani’s current trip to India.

He went on to say that Iran pursuing other important discussions with the Indians, such as joint production of locomotives. Initial agreements have already been reached to build a joint production of freight locomotive. This agreement would also be finalized and announced during Rouhani’s trip.

The construction of railway line in Isfahan Steel Mill, with a capacity of 300,000 tons per year, is another measure that would be undertaken in cooperation with the Indians. This would also be finalized during Rouhani’s trip.

Another joint project with the Indians to be finalized would be regarding the management of Chabahar Port. Indians would investment $87 million in this project. A temporary contract will be concluded in this area under which the Indians would be deployed there until the arrival of the equipment enters and their full investment takes place there.

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Iran, S. Korea sign $720m contract

reporter 1222 — Sun, 03 Dec 2017 05:42:09 +0000

Iran inked a $720m contract with South Korea to buy 450 rail buses from the latter within 6-year period.

Pointing to the fact that there are only 120 rail buses active in the country, Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi added that the contract is worth € 720, adding the Iranian side had previously signed another contract with the same Korean company.

Also present at the ceremony of signing the contract, Saeed Mohammadzadeh, the managing director of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (known as RAI) said that “this contract has been signed between Iranian company called ‘Iranian Rail Industries Development Co (IRICO)’ and Korean company Hyundai Rotem. He added that “Iranian and Korean companies are schedued to jointly produce rail buses, so that the technical knowledge will be transferred to Iran.”

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Iranian railway development needs $28b investment

reporter 1222 — Sun, 26 Nov 2017 06:12:11 +0000

TEHRAN- Development of Iran’s railway requires $28 billion investment, Transport Minister Abbas Akhoundi announced on Saturday.

Saying that development of railway transportation is emphasized by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, the minister stated that not only does railway transportation lead to economizing on fuel consumption, it boosts safety as well.

He went on to say that securing the required $28 billion investment from the internal sources and governmental budget is difficult, so some special share from the National Development Fund (NDF) sources should be allocated to it.

Saeed Mohammadzadeh, the managing director of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (known as RAI), is of the opinion that creation of competitive advantage is the key for railway development in Iran.

In the general policies of the country, for example for preparing the five-year national development plans, railway has been always the main pivot when it comes to development of transportation, Mohammadzadeh said in a press conference in late October.

“Therefore, we, in all sectors, should try for creating some competitive advantage for the railway transportation in the country”, the official emphasized.

“Our duty is to make railway transportation competitive and being of service to the national economy”, he noted and reinforced his remarks by saying: “Railway transportation has a unique role in Resistance Economy.”

“In order to achieve the targets that the Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (2016-2021) has set for us [20 percent and 30 percent shares in passenger and cargo transportation, respectively] we should follow up very serious, fast and specified plans”, Mohammadzadeh opined.

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