TEHRAN- Some 47 million tons of cargo were transported via railway in Iran during the past Iranian calendar year 1396 (ended on March 20), Saeed Rasouli, an official in the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (known as RAI), announced.

The official also put the cargo transport via railway at 40 million tons in the calendar year 1395, IRIB reported.

Rasouli said according to Iran’s Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (2016-2021), railway should account for transporting 30 percent of cargos and 20 percent of passengers in the country which requires supporting the railway system.

Supporting railway system should be in a way that the ground will be prepared for the attraction of private sector investment and also progress of state-run sector’s activities in development of railway throughout the country, he added.

Attraction of foreign investment and technology to the projects for development of Iranian railway is one of the objectives of RAI.

On May 29, Maziyar Yazdani, the deputy head of RAI for infrastructure and technical affairs, said that none of the European companies that are cooperating with Iran in railway infrastructure projects have so far reacted to the U.S. decision for leaving the nuclear deal and they are still continuing their cooperation with the RAI.

“We have replacements for all foreign companies in case of withdrawal under pressures from the U.S. sanctions”, he added.

MA