TEHRAN – Over 70 million tons (mt) of goods were transported through roads in the first two months of the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 20) of which four million tons were distributed from the country’s ports.

“This amount of cargo has been transferred with 4.6 million trips,” Deputy Transport Minister Abdolhashem Hassan-Nia told IRIB.

According to the official, over the past two months, more than 160,000 trucks transported basic goods to different parts of the country from ports, especially the port of Imam Khomeini.

Currently, more than 90 percent of the country's freight and passenger transportation is carried out through roads, and 1.5 million people work in this sector, he said.

“Nearly 450 million tons of cargo is transported annually in the country by 340,000 trucks, while another 250 million tons is also transported by mini-trucks to shorter distances across the country,” he added.

He further underlined the acceleration of freight transportation, especially in border terminals, as one of the main priorities of Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization (RMTO) and thanked the RMTO workforce and staff for doing their best during the coronavirus outbreak to keep the distribution of goods afloat.

Hassan-Nia earlier said that more than 5,000 kilometers (km) of arterial roads across the country are going through maintenance operations.

“The nationwide plan to improve the quality of asphalt coating of the country's arterial roads with 20 trillion rials of (about $476 million) of funding is being implemented on 5,000 kilometers of the country’s roads to improve their condition,” he said.

Earlier this month, Head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) Mohammad Rastad said 4.1 million tons of basic goods were stored at the country’s ports, waiting to be distributed across the country.

According to the official, over 14.3 million tons of basic goods were loaded and unloaded in the country’s ports, since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20) up to May 10, 35 percent less than the figure for the last year’s same period.

EF/MA