BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 31
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
The Iranian railroads will be connected to Afghan railroads by the end of the current Iranian year (began March 20, 2020), Deputy Minister of Iran's Road and Urban Development, CEO of Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructure Company Kheirollah Khademi told IRNA, Trend reports.
Currently, 136-kilometer railroad is being built from the Khaf county in the Razavi Khorasan Province (northeastern Iran) to the Afghan city of Herat, Khademi said.
The deputy minister added that in total, it is planned to put into operation seven railway lines with a length of 1,660 kilometers in Iran by the end of next Iranian year.
The plan includes the commissioning of the Chabahar-Zahedan, Khaf-Herat, Yazd-Eqlid, and Bostanabad-Tabriz railway lines, as well as the connection of Kurdistan Province, Ardabil Province, and Chahar-Mahal and Bakhtiari Province to the Iranian railway network.
In Iran, the plan to connect the port of Chabahar in Sistan and Baluchestan province to Iran's Sarakhs railway and the railway of Central Asian countries is one of the important initiatives.
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 the project. It was reported that after commissioning, 100 million tons of cargo will be transported by the railway a year.
About 300 million euros have been allocated by the National Development Fund of Iran for the construction of the Chabahar-Zahedan railway.
