The administration is planning to increase the role of railways in transportation of goods in line with its policy to expand trade, Mohammad Sa’idnejad, the deputy minister of roads and urban development told IRNA. Sa’idnejad who is also the CEO of Ports and Maritime Organization lamented that currently 90 percent of imports enter the country via sea and that railway transit has a small share. “Railroad expansion can also lead to job creation,” he said. Of the total oil and non-oil commodities transported during the first ten months of the current Iranian year, 10.338 million metric tons or 95% were transported by land, registering an increase of 8.4% compared with the similar period last year; while railway transport, with 552,000 metric tons accounted for only 5% of the transit activities, according to official data.
