TEHRAN- Boosting efficiency of national railway network is a top agenda of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (known as RAI)’s activities in the current Iranian calendar year (began on March 21), RAI Head Saeed Rasouli stated.

“To materialize this target, connecting the cargo hubs to the national network via building 512 kilometers of railway is being followed up”, the official said, IRIB reported.

Rasouli said the 512 kilometers of railway have the capacity of transporting 20 million tons of cargos per year, and put the total cargo transported via railway during the past Iranian calendar year at 46 million tons.

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.

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. 

MA/MA