Iran seeks to expand national rail network

Roughly 420 kilometers of railroad will be constructed by the end of the Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2013), the managing director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways Company said on Friday.

Abdol-Ali Saheb-Mohammadi also added that 10 new locomotives will come on stream in near future, the Fars News Agency reported.

Iran inaugurated a locomotive production plant in northern Alborz Province in July.

The plant has the capacity to manufacture 120 locomotives per year, according to the IRNA News Agency.

"Some €480 million plus 1 trillion rials have been invested in the project, which is aimed to create 750 direct jobs and 3000 indirect jobs," the Fars News Agency quoted Saheb-Mohammadi as saying.

Abdol-Ali Saheb-Mohammadi said in July that some 70 trillion rials (around $5.7 billion) has been allocated to develop railway nfrastructures.

Some 25,000 kilometers of railway is in operation across the country, the deputy roads and urban development minister Ahmad Sadeqi has said. He added that by the next two years all the country's provinces will be connected together through the railroad network.


/Trend/