TEHRAN – Over 7,000 kilometers (km) of railways have been constructed across Iran over the past seven years, the deputy head of the country’s Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company has announced.

According to Abbas Khatibi, the construction of 1,090 km of new railways, laying more than 1,800 km of rail tracks, laying 2,000 km of track ballast, and the construction and development of more than 161,000 square meters of stations in the country were some of the major achievements in this sector over the past few years.

The official pointed to the connection of four provincial centers to the country's rail network as one of the most important achievements of the last seven years, saying: “Gorgan-Incheh Boroun railway, Tehran-Hamedan railway, Maragheh-Urmieh railway, Qazvin- Rasht railway, Miyaneh-Bostanabad railway, and Khaf-Herat railway are among the most important projects that have been put into operation during these seven years.”

"If the accelerated trend of railway development in the country continues in the next 10 years, Iran will become the second biggest country in the region in terms of the density of railway network in proportion to vastness,” Khatibi stressed.

The official has also underlined the planning and management of infrastructure projects as one of the most important policies in order to achieve the country’s economic goals and said: “Prioritizing infrastructure projects, observing standards and technical specifications, observing environmental measures and achieving new technologies in the design and implementation of railway projects in the country is another part of the goals that have been achieved in this field.”

He further mentioned the use of domestically-made rail tracks (known as National Rail) in railway projects as another significant achievement in the country’s rail industry and added: “this type of rail is produced by limited number of countries and used for high-speed lines. Iran's access to the technology for constructing this type of rail has made the country able to export rails to other countries in addition to meeting domestic needs.”

EF/MA