TEHRAN- Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and Iran’s Railways (known as RAI) signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation for transit of commodities, IRNA reported.

Based on the agreement, which was inked by IRISL Managing Director Mohammadreza Modares Khiabani and RAI Head Saeed Rasouli, some scheduled container trains will start operation to boost transit of goods through Iran and the two sides will jointly establish logistic terminals for container commodities.

Signing this agreement is in line with Iran’s plans for boosting transit of goods.

The country aims to increase its transport capacity through International North South Transit Corridor (INSTC).

INSTC is a 7,200-km-long multi-mode network of ship, rail, and road route for moving freight between India, Iran, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe.

Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Eslami has said the country is capable of boosting its capacity of transit of commodities to 50 million tons per year.

Making the remarks in a ceremony to celebrate the National Transportation Day on Tuesday, the minister stressed that a double effort is required to achieve this goal.

“We should make an essential improvement in our logistics power to gain our share of transit”, Eslami further emphasized.

While ports are the main places where the commodities enter and exit from Iran, just four ports in the country are connected to the railway network and railway accounts for just 14 percent of transportation from and to the ports.

It’s a very small figure given geographical location of the country and the potential of its ports for transit of goods in the region. 

So, connecting the ports to the railway network has been emphasized by Transport and Urban Development Ministry and also Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) over the recent years.

MA/MA