BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 26
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
Two sections of the the Chabahar-Zahedan railway at the Sistan and Baluchestan Province in southeastern Iran will be put into operation said Head of the Planning and Budget Organization Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, Trend reports citing IRNA.
According to Nobakht, the Chabahar-Zahedan railway is being built in three sections. These sections consist of Chabahar-Iranshahr, Iranshahr-Khash and Khash-Zahedan.
Nobakht added that the Zahedan-Khash section will be commissioned on the anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution (January 31-February 10, 2021). The Chabahar-Iranshahr section will be commissioned by February 19.
The official said that the Chabahar-Zahedan railway is one of the important projects of the government and could connect the Shahid Beheshti port (active part of a bigger Chabahar port), an unsanctioned Iranian port (not sanctioned by the US), to Iran's railway network.
"The Iranshahr-Khash section will be commissioned in the third month of next Iranian year (May 22-June 21, 2021)," he said.
Construction of the 720-kilometer Chabahar-Zahedan railway began in 2010. In 2014, the construction of this railway was accelerated by changing the contractor. So far, 17 trillion rials (about $404 million) has been spent on the construction of this railway and it is estimated that 40 trillion rials (about $952 million) will be required to complete it. It was reported that if this railway is put into operation, it will transport 100 million tons of cargo a year.
About 300 million euros funds have been allocated by the National Development Fund of Iran for the construction of the Chabahar-Zahedan railway.
The US imposed new sanctions on Iran in November 2018. Over the past period, the sanctions affected Iranian oil exports, more than 700 banks, companies and individuals. The port of Shahid Beheshti in Iran's Chabahar county has not been included in the US sanctions list.
