TEHRAN – Head of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (known as RAI) says the country’s rail freight transportation capacity is going to increase by five million tons in near future, IRIB reported.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 4th edition of Iran’s Logistics, Transportation, and Related Industries Exhibition (IRAN TRANS EXPO 2019) on Monday, Saeed Rasouli said: “By connecting Jalalabad mine and Zarand Steel Complex, in Kerman Province, to the national rail network more than five million tons of new capacity will be added to the country’s rail freight transportation.”

According to the official, in the first six months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-August 22), 432 new freight wagons, locomotives, and passenger wagons were added to the nation's rail fleet, all of which were manufactured by domestic factories.

The figure shows a 97-percent increase compared to the same period last year, and by the end of the year (March 19, 2020), more domestically-made locomotives and wagons will join the country's rail fleet, he said.

Back in July, Rasouli said that 59 kilometers of railroads are planned to be built for connecting the major cargo hubs in the country to the national railway network by the end of the current Iranian calendar year. 

He mentioned linking the cargo hubs to the railway network as one of the main priorities of RAI in the current year.

The official had previously named boosting the efficiency of railway fleet and network through benefitting from the most available capacities and supporting domestic production in developing passenger and cargo fleet as two other major priorities of his organization this year.

According to Rasouli, in this year, which is named as the year of "Pickup in Production" by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, all efforts of RAI are for renovating the railway fleet of the country by relying on domestic producers.

Opened by Transport Minister Mohammad Eslami on Sunday, the 4th International Exhibition of Transportation, Logistics, and Related Industries is being held in Tehran and will be wrapped up on Tuesday.

EF/MA