BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 17. The construction of the Chabahar-Zahedan railroad line in Sistan and Baluchestan provinces located in the southeast of Iran is 71 percent complete, Iran's Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development Kheirollah Khademi said, Trend reports.
According to Khademi, construction works are underway on 634 kilometers of railway line with a total length of 786 kilometers, including railway stations. Already 152 kilometers of the railway line are in operation.
The deputy minister noted that more than 550 million euros have been spent on the construction of this railway line. The railway line is estimated to cost 1.5 billion euros.
“$300 million of customs revenue per year, transportation of 7.8 million tons of cargo from India and Southeast Asian countries to Central Asian countries and Russia, employment of 1,560 people, and saving of 6.9 million liters of fuel worth $3.5 billion in annual revenue will result from the commissioning of the Chabahar-Zahedan railway line,” he said.
Meanwhile, the speed of passenger trains on this railway line will be 160 kilometers per hour and the speed of freight trains will be 120 kilometers per hour. In the first year of operation, the railroad will carry 927,000 passengers and 2.8 million tons of cargo. In the coming years, it is planned to transport more than 2 million passengers and 7.7 million tons of cargo annually.
To note, the Chabahar-Zahedan railroad line is located on the international North-South corridor. The North-South corridor has three directions in Iran. The eastern direction is Turkmenistan and Central Asian countries, the middle direction is Russia and other countries across the Caspian Sea, and the western direction is Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, and Eastern European countries.