TEHRAN - Kheirollah Khademi, the managing director of Iran’s Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company (CDTIC), announced that 3,300 kilometers (km) of railways are currently under construction across the country of which 561 km will be inaugurated by the next Iranian calendar year 1402 (starts in March 2023).

As reported by the Transport and Urban Ministry’s portal, the priority for completing railways in the coming year is the projects with more than 70 percent physical progress, Khademi said

According to Khademi, with the mentioned projects going operational, railway construction in the next Iranian year will be 2.5 times more than the average figure.

The official noted that 1,035 km of freeways are also under construction across the country of which 293 km is planned to go operational in the next year. He put the total length of the country’s freeways at 2,800 km.

Mentioning the highway projects underway across Iran, Khademi said 6,100 km of highways are also under construction in the country.

Earlier, Abbas Khatibi, deputy head of CDTIC, said that Over 7,000 km of railways have been constructed across Iran over the past seven years.

According to Khatibi, the construction of 1,090 km of new railways, the laying of more than 1,800 km of rail tracks, the laying of 2,000 km of track ballast, and the construction and development of more than 161,000 square meters of stations in the country were some of the major achievements in this sector over the past few years.

The official pointed to the connection of four provincial centers to the country's rail network as one of the most important achievements of the last seven years, saying: “Gorgan-Incheh Boroun railway, Tehran-Hamedan railway, Maragheh-Urmia railway, Qazvin- Rasht railway, Miyaneh-Bostanabad railway, and Khaf-Herat railway are among the most important projects that have been put into operation during these seven years.”

EF/MA