TEHRAN - Iran’s Vice President for Science, Technology and Knowledge-based Economy Rouhollah Dehghani Firouzabadi says the construction of a domestically-made train has made 85 percent development and the train is expected to join the subway fleet within the next couple of weeks.

Firouzabadi said that the train is being constructed by a Consortium of five knowledge-based companies operating along with the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade, Tehran Municipality, and the Academic Center for Education, Culture, and Research.

He added that the home-made train successfully underwent all the Iranian and European quality standard tests last week, the portal of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) reported on Saturday.

The vice president noted that with the mass production of this train, over 90 percent of the country’s needs for trains would be met.

In late February, the Iranian railway fleet also received 685 new domestically-made or renovated wagons and locomotives worth 33.58 trillion rials (about $67.7 million).

The mentioned wagons and locomotives included 645 freight wagons, 10 new locomotives, five renovated locomotives, two new passenger wagons, and 23 renovated passenger wagons, all manufactured and renovated by domestic companies.

The development of the railway sector has been one of the macro policies of the Iranian government as it has been emphasized by the general policies of the country’s national development plans.

In this regard, the national railway fleet has constantly received new domestically-made locomotives and wagons in the past and current Iranian calendar years.

Last year, a total of 1,660 wagons and locomotives were added to the country’s railway fleet in four stages.

Advantages such as consuming less fuel and creating less pollution as well as high safety attach priority to the railway when compared to some other transportation systems, and make its development economically viable.

EF/