TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran’s Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development for Construction and Development of Railways, Ports, and Airports said that Iran and Afghanistan railways will be connected soon.

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The country’s Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (2016-2021) has envisaged that the railway will account for at least 30 percent of cargo transportation and 20 percent of passenger transportation in the country.

Such target requires at least 850 trillion rials (about $20.238 billion) of investment.

The required investment and also the necessity of empowering domestic production have led the government to take the advantage of private sector’s capabilities.

Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (known as RAI) has been witnessing private sector’s high contribution to development of railway sector in different fields from building rails to manufacturing locomotives and wagons in the past few years.

Last year, during the 6th International Exhibition of Rail Transportation, Related Industries and Equipment of Iran, dubbed RAILEXPO 2018, the country unveiled the first ever Iranian-made locomotive engine.

And then in mid-June of this year, Mapna Group unveiled the first Iranian-made freight locomotive on the sidelines of the 7th edition of the mentioned exhibition.

In early August, RAI Head Saeed Rasouli said that domestic manufacturers are set to supply over 1,000 locomotives and wagons and also 40,000 tons of rails to RAI by the end of the next Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2021).

He said: “After Mapna Group unveiled their first Iranian-made freight locomotive, RAI ordered the company to manufacture a series of freight and passenger wagons and locomotives, which their production will begin soon.”

“Mapna will soon begin the manufacturing process and the wagons will gradually enter the country’s rail fleet within the next two years,” Rasouli said.

He also mentioned the manufacturing of rail segments in the country (in a project called National Rail) saying the manufacturing of national rail is also underway and the country is self-sufficient in this regard.

And during a ceremony on Tuesday, some 213 new domestically-made locomotives and wagons were added to the railway fleet of the country.

While contributing to manufacturing of locomotives and wagons, private sector is also acting well in renovation projects.

As the passenger wing of RAI, Iranian Raja Railway Transport Company has signed deals with three domestic companies namely Wagon Pars Company, Novin Sanat Raja Company and Ehya Sanat Co. for renovating 124 passenger wagons that are over 30 years old.

Raja has also signed a deal with Wagon Pars Company for manufacturing of 41 passenger wagons, of which 33 wagons have been handed to Raja.

All the mentioned measures signify the high involvement of private sector in the railway development, but as the country already lags behind its objective for the railway sector envisaged in the Sixth National Development Plan, more contribution of private sector is required both to investment making and to manufacturing.

And it is an issue that according to the experts of transportation sector requires Ministry of Transport and also RAI to review their policies and regulations for more presence of the private sector.

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The official added that both sides have been planning to launch this route for years, noting that the studies indicate that Tehran-Istanbul railroad could bring in considerable profits for the investors.

He said TCDD and Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism are eager for this route to start operating.

Earlier in August, the first direct train route between the two neighbors’ capitals, Tehran and Ankara, was resumed after a four-year halt.

The Passenger train services resumed on Tehran-Tabriz-Van railroad were also launched late June after they were four years of suspension.

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, Turkey was the most popular overseas destination for Iranian travelers in 2018, accounting for 41% of all visits abroad.

Turkey’s largest city Istanbul, the eastern province of Van and the southern province of Antalya are the most popular destinations for Iranian vacationers.

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Khademi added that the Iranian delegation visited the site where Shalamcheh-Basra railway is going to start, adding that whenever the Iraqi side assign the land that is needed for the implementation of the project, the experts will be deployed there and the Iranian Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company will evaluate the needed credit.

The railway connects the city of Shalamcheh in southwestern Iran to Basra in southern Iraq. The Shalamcheh-Basra railway project is estimated to cost 2.22 billion rials and can link Iran to Syria via Iraq, a Press TV report evaluated as such back in April.

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Accordingly, Plan and Budget Organization promised to finance 40 percent of the credit for domestic production of wagon while Iran-Venezuela Bi-National Bank vowed to finance other 40 percent of the credit needed for manufacturing of wagon, he said, adding, “the remaining 20 percent shall be borne by the applicants willing to purchase wagon.”

According to him, entry of new fleet of domestic production of wagon to the rail network registered a considerable 64 percent growth in the first four months of the current year (March 21 – July 21) as compared to the last year’s corresponding period.

He went on to say that a number of 172 wagon units were added to the rail network of the country in the same period.

It should be noted that Iran-Venezuela Bi-National Bank is an international financial institution that was founded in 2010 with an aim to develop commercial ties between Iran and Venezuela.

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“At the moment we have no problem in producing good quality cargo and passenger wagons. The self-propelled locomotive is being produced in Iran by cooperation with Hyundai. The national production volume is increasing and we hope to reach a level of self-sufficiency,” he said.

“There is a possibility to produce freight and passenger locomotives in the country and today our passenger trains are completely produced by MAPNA Group and we have 150 locomotives in the network, while the production of freight wagons and their transportation continues,” he noted.

Rasouli recently attended the International union of railways (UIC) conference where he held bilateral meetings with officials from Turkey, Jordan and Syria during the event.

The official expressed Iran’s readiness to export engineering services to the mentioned countries.

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Boosting efficiency of railway fleet and network through benefiting from the most available capacities and supporting domestic production in developing passenger and cargo fleet are the two major priorities of RAI in the current Iranian year (ending on March 20, 2020).

“To materialize this target, connecting the cargo hubs to the national network via building 512 kilometers of railway is being followed up”, Rasouli announced on July 14.

He said the 512 kilometers of railway have the capacity of transporting 20 million tons of cargoes per year, and put the total cargo transported via railway during the past Iranian calendar year at 46 million tons.

He added that linking the cargo centers to the railway network has been started and implanting the scheduled plan for the current year is on the agenda, while major cargo centers are planned to be linked to the railway based on a multi-year schedule.

Rasouli announced that his organization and the ministry of industry have come to an agreement on supporting domestic production in the railway sector.

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Tehran–Qom–Isfahan High Speed Rail is the first truly high-speed rail project in Iran, currently under construction. The rail line would decrease travel times between Tehran and Isfahan, passing through Qom. It also connects Isfahan and Qom to Imam Khomeini International Airport, the most important international airport of Iran, making international air travel for passengers from Qom and Isfahan much more convenient.

Iran signed a contract with China Railway Group Limited, also known as CREC, to build this line. Although the contract was signed in 2015 with an estimated value of €1.8 billion, its scope and value are expected to expand.

The ex-Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi ordered the redesign of the route to make it more efficient compared to the previous design, including the relocation of the train stations in Tehran, Qom and Isfahan.

CREC is a Chinese construction company listed in Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges. The major shareholder of the company is the state-owned China Railway Engineering Corporation.

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He underlined that Iran’s railway industry is aimed at overcoming the current US sanctions.

Rasouli had previously informed of allocation of 20 trillion rials by the Planning and Budget Organization for renovation of 1000 passenger and freight wagons and also locomotives through benefiting from domestic capabilities in the current Iranian calendar year (began on March 21, 2019).

The RAILEXPO 2019 is being held from 9-12 June at Tehran International Exhibition and under the patronage of Iran’s Ministry of Road and Urban Development and full support of RAI.

The exhibition is attended by high-ranking Iranian authorities including ministers of road and urban development, industry, mine and trade, the head of RAI and also top managers from Iranian Railways. As reported, officials and representatives from railway companies of Europe, Asia, Middle East and CIS regions may also take part in the event.

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Having the railroad reopened, passenger and freight trains have resumed their activities via the international route, he added.

Gorgan-Incheboron train line, which is part of the Garmsar-Sari-Gorgan-Incheboron route, extends to Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan and links the Central Asia to the Persian Gulf and beyond.

The railroad was damaged due to the exceptional rainfalls since March 19 which flooded some 1,900 cities and villages across Iran. Floods affected several provinces in the north and west of the country including, Golestan, Mazandaran, Lorestan, and Khuzestan.

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