TEHRAN - Head of Iran’s Budget and Planning Organization (BPO) announced that two sections of Zahedan-Chabahar railway are going to be completed by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2021).

Mohammad-Baqer Nobakht made the remarks during a visit to the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan on Tuesday, Mehr news agency reported.

Also, a deputy at Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company (CDTIC) said, “The Zahedan-Khash and Iranshahr-Chabahar sections of the project are scheduled to go operational by the end of the current year, and the middle section of the project, that connects Iranshahr to Khash, will be operational in the next Iranian calendar year 1400.”

Zahedan-Chabahar railroad which is to connect Zahedan, the capital city of Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, to Chabahar port in the province was previously planned to be completed by the end of the current Iranian calendar year.

Chabahar Port in southeast Iran is the most prioritized one for railway connection as the port’s exemption from the U.S. sanctions on the country has become an opportunity for the development of export, transit, and also transshipment through this port.

Lying on the coast of the Gulf of Oman in Sistan-Baluchestan Province, Chabahar is the country’s only oceanic port and given its strategic location in the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) development of the port is of high significance for Iran.

The project for building the 610-kilometer railroad was launched nine years ago but due to lack of financial resources it was stopped for three years. Then the contractor of the project was replaced and the operation was started.

EF/MA