Iran to lease passenger wagons from EU

Baku, Azerbaijan, May 18

By Fatih Karimov – Trend:

Iran is negotiating with certain European companies to lease passenger wagons, Mohammad Rajabi, Managing Director of RAJA Rail Transportation Company, said.

The mostly new wagons will be delivered to RAJA starting from August 2017, Rajabi said, Tasnim news agency reported.

Given the limitation to attract financial resources to purchase new wagons, the Iranian railways company decided to launch talks for leasing railway carriages, he said, adding that talks are underway with a German-Chinese firm to lease 50 wagons.

He underlined that the wagons were manufactured in Germany.

Rajabi further said that lengthy process of receiving purchased wagons is another reason behind decision for leasing carriages.

Receiving the purchased wagons takes at least three years, he added.

Three Iranian companies-Wagon Pars, Kowsar Wagon Company and Derakhshan Arak Steel have recently signed a deal with Russian United Wagon company for manufacturing and import of freight cars.

Under the contract, three Iranian companies will manufacture 4,900 freight cars through funding from the Russian side, while 1,100 freight cars will be imported as completely built units (CBUs). Based on initial agreement, the freight cars will be manufactured within three years.

The Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran (IDRO) and Transmashholding, Russia’s largest company on the railway machine-building market also signed a contract, worth 500 million euros for manufacturing 500 railroad cars.

The two parties will cooperate in the field of railroad cars, in particular passenger car production with Russian finance.

Iran’s transport sector has remained underdeveloped due to mismanagement as well as international sanctions.

A May 2016 report said the major Iranian wagon maker Pars Wagon was operating at 25 percent of its capacity because of scanty liquidity with railway companies and too few orders from customers.