TEHRAN - The Islamic Republic of Iran Railways, known also as RAI, is offering support packages to investors in various railway projects to encourage more investment in this area, RAI Head Saeed Rasouli has said.

According to Rasouli, based on the type of project and the type of investment, support packages have been considered for investors in such a way that there would be enough attraction for investors and capital suppliers, especially banks.

“These packages provide the necessary measures for risk management and risk reduction for investors,” he said.

Expanded transportation via railway is today one of the major pillars of sustainable development for the countries; and it is why the governments usually allocate noticeable funds and resources to the development of the railway. In Iran, too, the development of railway has become a major part of government planning in recent years.

Iran’s Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (2016-2021) has envisaged that the railway will account for at least 30 percent of cargo transportation and 20 percent of passenger transportation in the country.

In this regard, despite the economic problems caused by the sanctions and the negative impacts of the coronavirus, RAI has been seriously following a program for developing the country’s rail industry by promoting investment in this sector.

The head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways has said that his company has defined specific goals for the participation of the private sector in the country’s railway projects during the current Iranian calendar year (began on March 20) which has been named the year of “Surge in Production” by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Seyed Ali Khamenei.

Referring to the vast investment opportunities in the country's rail transportation industry and the valuable production capacities in this sector, Rasouli said: "An investment ecosystem has been developed in the railway company, in which we have defined two major roles for RAI for the development of the rail transportation industry: the first role is for the railway company to provide the necessary facilities to the private sector, and the second role is as an investor, which means to form joint investments with the private sector in various projects.”

EF/MA