TEHRAN - Managing Director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (known as RAI) said Shalamcheh-Basra railway project will be commenced in the upcoming months, IRNA reported.

“Shalamcheh-Basra railway route is 32 kilometers long along which a 700-meter bridge is also going to be constructed,” Saeed Rasouli said on Monday.
According to the official, the project will be completed within a year and the final destination of the railway is the city of Latakia in Syria.
Earlier in July, during a joint meeting between heads of the railways of Iran, Iraq and Syria in Tehran, Iranian Deputy Road Minister Kheirollah Khademi had said Shalamcheh-Basra railway project would be implemented within three months.
Khademi, who is also the head of Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company, said that after signing a cooperation agreement between Iran and Iraq, the contractor and investor of the 32-kilometer railroad were designated.
According to the official, Islamic Republic of Iran’s Mostazafan Foundation was set to fund the project as the Iranian party of the agreement.
“We are ready to implement the project in Iraq, expecting the Iraqi government to allocate the intended land of the project to us,” he stated.
Iran, Iraq and Syria held a tripartite meeting on July 1 in Tehran for discussing expansion of transportation cooperation among the three countries.
Development of rail transport, increasing transit, development of exports and imports, and implementation of the Shalamcheh-Basra railway were among the topics discussed in the meeting.
In early June Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami had named holding talks with Iraqi side on selecting a contractor for Shalamcheh-Basra railway among his ministry’s top priorities during the current Iranian year (ending on March 20, 2020).
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