BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 20. The Bostanabad-Tabriz railway line in Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province, in the north-west of the country, is expected to be launched in the coming days, Iranian Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development, and CEO of Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructure Company (CDTIC), Kheirollah Khademi said, Trend reports citing the ministry.
The minister noted that 96 percent of the construction work on the 44-km part out of the 70 km long Bostanabad-Tabriz railway line has already been completed.
Khademi added that the construction of the mentioned railway line cost approximately 30 trillion rials (about $714 million).
“With the launch of this railway line, the distance between Tehran and Tabriz will decrease by 114 km and the time will decrease by 4 hours. Thus, the Tehran-Tabriz train will reach its destination in about 8 hours,” he said.
According to Khademi, it is expected that 1 million tons of cargo will be transported via this railway line in the first year of operation, and 7 million tons annually in the following years. It is also expected that 1 million passengers will be transported through the railway line in the first year of operation, and 2 million passengers annually in the following years.
The total length of the Bostanabad-Tabriz railway is 70 kilometers. Some 26-km part of it was launched in the previous years.
Iran plans to complete the construction of 4 railway lines with a total length of approximately 400 km for the current Iranian year (March 21, 2023 through March 19, 2024).
Meanwhile, approximately 200 km of railway lines were built in Iran over the last Iranian year (March 21, 2022 through March 20, 2023).
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