BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 19
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend
Construction work has been accelerated on the Chabahar-Zahedan railway of Sistan and Baluchestan province in southeastern Iran, said Mohammad Eslami, Minister of Road and Urban Development, Trend reports citing IRIB.
According to Eslami, it was decided to put the Chabahar-Zahedan railway into operation two years later. However, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani wants the railway to be commissioned by August next year (the current Iranian government will end in August next year).
Eslami added that this railway is considered one of the strategic corridors in Iran's railway transport. On this basis, the construction work was accelerated several times by the Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarter, a contractor company.
"As for the construction of railways, 400-kilometer railroad will be commissioned this Iranian year. It is possible to put into operation 400-1,000 kilometer railroad by August next year (the current government's activity will end in August 2021).
The minister said that 780 freight wagons, passenger wagons and locomotives were produced and put into operation in Iran last Iranian year (from March 21, 2019 to March 20, 2020). This year, it is planned to produce 2,000 wagons and put them into operation.
Construction of the 610-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.
“To accelerate the implementation of the project, some 300 million euro have been allocated from the National Development Fund of Iran,” he added.