Mohammad Eslami said that the total length of Iran’s railway network will reach 28,000 kilometers by 2025, Press TV reported.

“There are further 14,000 kilometers of railway, either under construction or being planned, and upon building this amount, we will reach 28,000 kilometers of railway within the next five years,” said Eslami.

The minister made the comments during a ceremony held for finalizing a major rail line connecting a dry port near Tehran to the southern port of Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf.

Iran’s largest port operator, Tidewater Middle East Co., has promised to invest some 20 trillion rials (about $100 million) to connect terminals in Bandar Abbas to the Aprin dry port located southwest of the Iranian capital.

Eslami said the government has been making efforts to discourage road freight in Iran, a policy he said would benefit final consumers of goods and products in the country.

He said loading and unloading at major Iranian ports had increased from 147 million metric tons per year in 2018 to 172 million tons in 2019, adding that the figure could have increased more if the ports had more access to the railway network.