TEHRAN – Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Eslami said the county’s railway fleet is going to receive 300 new domestically-manufactured wagons and locomotives by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 19).

Speaking in a meeting for reviewing the annual performance of the country’s ministries on Wednesday, the official noted that the rail industry has also become self-sufficient in manufacturing and supplying rail tracks.

In this year, which is named as the year of "Pickup in Production" by the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, the Transport Ministry and Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (known as RAI) is focused on renovating the railway fleet by relying on domestic producers.

In late December, Eslami and the Head of RAI Saied Rasouli unveiled some 243 new domestically-made locomotives and wagons which were added to the country’s railway fleet.

Valued at 3.4 trillion rials (about $80.9 million), the mentioned wagons and locomotives were made by three different companies namely, Wagon Pars, Iranian Rail Industries Development Company and Foolad Derakhshan Arak Company.

Also in September 2019, RAI celebrated the addition of 213 domestically-made wagons and locomotives to the country’s fleet.

During the ceremony for unveiling the said locomotives and wagons, Rasouli said the number of domestically produced locomotives and wagons was increased by 58 percent, adding that according to a memorandum signed last year with the Budget and Planning Organization (BPO), by the end of the next Iranian calendar year (March 2021) another 974 locomotives will be added to the country’s rail fleet.

Rasouli had also announced, in June 2019, that 20 trillion rials (about $476.2 million) has been allocated for renovation of 1000 passenger and freight wagons and also locomotives in the current Iranian calendar year.

EF/MA