Tehran, Iran, June 21
By A. Shirazi, Kamyar Eghbalnejad - Trend:
The project for electrification of the Garmsar-Incheboron railway, with a length of 495 kilometers, linking Garmsar in the north-central province of Semnan to Incheboron in the northeastern province of Golestan, will be officially inaugurated in the next two weeks, deputy head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways said.
“The Russian firm tasked with electrifying the Garmsar-Incheboron railway has voiced readiness to implement the project in the next two weeks,” Maziar Yazdani told Trend on June 21.
He added that Tehran expects the groundbreaking ceremony of the project to be held on July 3 with senior Iranian and Russian officials in attendance.
Russia and Iran signed an agreement worth €1.2 billion in November 2015 to electrify a train line that would connect north-central Iran to the northeastern border with Turkmenistan.
The agreement between Russian Railways and the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (RAI) envisages constructing power plants and overhead power lines along the Garmsar-Sari-Gorgan- Incheboron route in Iran.
The train line, among the first in Iran with a history of 80 years, extends to Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan and links Central Asia to the Persian Gulf and beyond.
Elsewhere in the interview, Yazdani said the country has signed a key railway agreement with France, which is being implemented smoothly and has seen a 20 percent physical progress.
The Qom-Arak Railway project, which envisages launch of a high-speed railway, is also waiting for financing and then implementation, he further said.
The deputy head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways also referred to the construction of a dock at the Astara port, saying that investors have been granted permits and they can begin their activities in an area of 65 hectares there.