The state-backed Iran National Innovation Fund plans to lend 600 billion rials ($2.4 million) to local tech and knowledge-based businesses to accelerate the indigenization of subway trains and other related components.
Ali Vahdat, the head of INIF, said that with the extension of Tehran Metro, the need for undertaking timely repair and upgrading trains is evident, SNN reported.
INIF’s financial aid was offered during the Sunday inauguration of a production line for subway train parts in Tehran.
The event was attended by Vice President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari, the head of Plan and Budget Organization, Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, and Tehran Mayor Pirouz Hanachi.
At the ceremony, Vahdat said over 18 knowledge-based companies, Tehran Wagon Manufacturing Company, the Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research, Abhar Network Rail Industries Development Corporation and MAPNA Group have collaborated in the subway localization efforts.
Vahdat said the production line is a follow-up to a subway train localization project announced in August 2020.
“Subway train localization reached 85% after leading Iranian tech firms launched a joint effort. Earlier, the share of local companies in train production was hardly 30%,” he added.
Bogie suspension, gangway connection, brakes, wagon wheel and passenger information systems are among numerous components developed by local tech firms.
Over the past week, urban managers have launched five subway stations, namely Yadegar-e Emam, Sattari and Ashrafi Esfahani in the northwestern part of Line 6, Ahang in the eastern flank of Line 7 and Tarbiat Modarres.
The number of functioning metro stations in the capital rose to 130 as a result of last-minute inaugurations before the current Iranian yearend (March 20).
Stretching over 253 kilometers across the capital, Tehran Metro constitutes seven lines (Line 1 to 7), with lines 6 and 7 still under construction.
Locally-Made Train
In August 2020, Iranian knowledge-based companies and tech firms unveiled a largely localized subway wagon to alleviate the country’s dependency on foreign resources for subway development plans.
Sattari said the plan for expanding domestic producers’ share in subway development was launched a decade ago and their efforts have finally paid off.
“We should have bought eight-wagon trains for over €20 million, but the localization project saves up to €12 million for each train,” he added.
Sattari noted that Tehran Metro needs 1,500 wagons, the production of which will boost urban transportation capacity by 6 million people.
Ali Emam, the head of Tehran Metro Company, earlier declared that the government is committed to supplying 2,000 train cars for Tehran Metro during the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (2017-22).
“The trains were to be assembled with 55% of domestically-made parts. Fortunately, with the support of technology ecosystem, the domestic production capacity has risen remarkably over the past few years, gradually making Tehran’s subway self-sufficient and sanction-proof,” he said.
Cash Crunch
Subway expansion by using local potentials has been hindered by financial deficiencies for a long time.
Last month, Emam told reporters that Tehran’s subway network requires 20 trillion rials ($80.8 million) to launch 10 stations in lines 3, 6 and 7.
"Each station requires 300 billion rials to 1.5 trillion rials [$1.21-6 million]. The money would also cover workers' salary for two months," he added.
Last fiscal year (ended March 2020), Tehran Municipality was authorized to issue 15 trillion rials ($60.6 million) of participatory bonds for streamlining the public transportation system. The subway’s share of the bonds was 10 trillion rials ($40.4 million), which were supposed to be paid by October 2020.
“Only 2 trillion rials ($8 million) were encashed and delivered early January,” Emam said.
Manaf Hashemi, TM’s deputy for traffic and transportation affairs, said the municipality has promised to encash the remaining bonds issued last year and help expedite subway construction.
In October 2020, Tehran City Council ratified a motion allowing TM to raise another 40 trillion rials ($161.6 million) through participatory bonds for developing public transportation in the current fiscal year.
Officials believe that the new stations connecting the east to the west of the city will considerably reduce traffic congestion and air pollution.
Metro’s Budget Deficit
Last September, Mohammad Alikhani, the head of Tehran City Council’s Transportation Commission, said the subway’s network in the capital needs 2 quadrillion rials ($8.08 billion) for the construction of unfinished lines, purchase of train cars and standardization of equipment.
He added that due to the negative effects of US sanctions since the summer of 2018, Iran’s rial is losing value against hard currencies, making it a tough task to expand and renew the ailing public transportation in Tehran.
Since the US reimposed sanctions against Iran in 2018, the rial has lost 70% of its value against the greenback over the past year. On Wednesday, the US dollar was trading at 24,750 rials in Tehran while it hardly fetched 42,000 rials in March 2018.
“A train wagon cost 50 billion rials a couple of years ago, but now the price reaches 200 billion rials, which Tehran Municipality cannot afford,” Alikhani said.
Mohsen Hashemi, the head of TCC, also expressed disquiet over Tehran subway’s shortfalls and said, “While the subway lines have been extended around the city by 80 kilometers in the past several years, not enough trains have been added to the metro’s network.”
