TEHRAN – The managing director of Iran’s Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company (CDTIC) has said that 950 railway and freeway projects are currently underway across the country many of which will be inaugurated by the next Iranian calendar year 1402 (starts in March 2023).

As IRNA reported, speaking to the press on the sidelines of the sixth Exhibition of Transportation, Logistics, and Related Industries on Tuesday, Kheirollah Khademi said five railway projects and five freeways with over 80 percent of physical progress have been prioritized to go operational early next year.

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

The official had earlier said that 1,035 kilometers (km) of freeways are also under construction across the country of which 291 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.

Abbas Khatibi, deputy head of CDTIC, said in March 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