TEHRAN- The head of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (known as RAI) said development of railways for transport of cargos from ports is a top agenda of RAI’s activities.

Making the remarks in an interview conducted by the news portal of Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO), Saeed Rasouli also announced about the serious will of RAI for expansion of rail transportation.

Last week, the official said that 59 kilometers of railroads are planned to be built for connecting the major cargo hubs in the country to the national railway network by the end of current Iranian calendar year (March 19, 2020).

Rasouli mentioned linking the cargo hubs to the railway network as one of the main priorities of RAI in the current year, Mehr news agency reported.

The official has previously named boosting efficiency of railway fleet and network through benefitting from the most available capacities and supporting domestic production in developing passenger and cargo fleet as two other major priorities of his organization in this year.

He said linking the cargo centers to the railway network has been started and implanting the scheduled plan for the current year is on the agenda, adding that he major cargo centers are planned to be linked to the railway based on a multi-year schedule.

Rasouli announced that his organization and the ministry of industry have come to an agreement on supporting domestic production in the railway sector.

He said that a task force has been set up to follow up the issue, IRNA reported.

The official has also announced that 20 trillion rials (about $476.1 million) has been allocated to renovation of 1000 passenger and freight wagons and also locomotives through benefitting from domestic capabilities in the current Iranian calendar year, IRIB reported.

Rasouli said this amount has been allocated by the Planning and Budget Organization.

 Renovating railway fleet

In this year, which is named as the year of "Pickup in Production" by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, all efforts of RAI are for renovating the railway fleet of the country by relying on domestic producers, the official further stressed.

On June 12, Iran’s transport minister unveiled an Iranian-made freight locomotive on the sidelines of the 7th International Exhibition of Rail Transportation, Related Industries and Equipment, dubbed RAILEXPO 2019.

“This new locomotive can reduce its supply costs to one-sixth while being able to compete with foreign rivals,” IRNA quoted Mohammad Eslami as saying.

Last year, during the same exhibition, Iran unveiled the first ever Iranian-made locomotive engine.

According to the manufacturers, the mentioned engine complies with Euro4 standards for reducing fuel consumption and competes with the best European engines in terms of quality.

Currently, Iran has 13,000 kilometers of railway laid, and based on the country’s Sixth National Five-Year Development Plan (2016-2021), the railway network is due to expand to more than 16,400 kilometers. 

Boosting capacity of transporting cargos from/to Shahid Rajaee Port

During the interview conducted by PMO’s portal news, the head of RAI also referred to his recent visit to Shahid Rajaee Port (Iran’s largest container port located at southern Hormozgan Province) and said, “We are trying to expand transportation of cargos from/to this port via railways and in this due some agreements have been achieved between RAI and MPO.”

As announced by Director General of Ports and Maritime Department of Hormozgan Province Allah-Morad Afifipour, over 730,000 tons of basic commodities have been unloaded at Shahid Rajaee Port during the 80-day period from the beginning of current Iranian calendar year (March 21).

The official said that the goods were unloaded from 24 vessels, IRIB reported.

MA/MA