Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami flagged off track laying operations for a railroad connecting the southeastern port city of Chabahar to the eastern city of Zahedan near the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan on Tuesday.
The project manager said 92,000 tons of rails are needed to complete the 700-kilometer track. According to Mohammadreza Azarian, the UIC60 rails manufactured by Esfahan Steel Company will be used in this project.
“As per a contract with ESCO, the Isfahan-based company will supply 5,000 tons of rails in the first stage, of which 1,000 tons have been delivered. Track-laying of one kilometer of railroad is planned to be completed in one day,” he was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.
The 628-km railroad will include 34 stations and pass through Chabahar, Tis, Konarak, Nik Shahr, Iranshahr, Khash and Zahedan.
With the new railroad in place, 927,000 passengers and 2.8 million tons of cargo will be handled annually by March 2023.
Average speed of freight trains will be 120 km per hour. Passenger trains will run at 160 km per hour.
It will create jobs for 13,000 people and 3,000 will be involved directly in the project.
As planned, track laying of 150 kilometers of Chabahar-Zahedan railroad will be complete by March 2021.
An estimated 92,000 tons of rails are needed to complete the Chabahar-Zahedan railroad project and UIC60 rails made by Esfahan Steel Company will be used
Work on the project started in fiscal 2010-11, only to come to a halt for three years due to funding constraints.
The railroad to Zahedan is crucial, as it is vital for connecting landlocked Afghanistan via Chabahar. The port in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan Province is strategically important for India too, allowing it easy access to Afghanistan and bypassing Pakistan.
After connecting Iran’s only oceanic port of Chabahar to Zahedan, the railroad will be linked to Zaranj in Afghanistan. When Afghan cargo arrives in Zahedan, it can be transported to Chabahar and then to India.
“The railroad project consists of three sections: Chabahar-Iranshahr, Iranshahr-Khash and Khash-Zahedan. The Khash-Zahedan Section will be completed by next February.
By next March, Chabahar-Iranshahr will be inaugurated and the remaining section will be launched by June 21, 2021.
A total of €300 million has been allocated to this project from the National Development Fund of Iran,” the head of Plan and Budget Organization, Mohammad Baqer Nobakht has said.
Withdrawal from the NDFI was allowed after the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei authorized the government to use the funds to complete the rail project.
India has agreed to contribute to the construction of the railroad from Chabahar to Zahedan. A memorandum of understanding worth $2 billion was signed by Iran and India’s Railway Ministry in February 2019 when President Hassan Rouhani visited India.
India, Iran and Afghanistan inked a pact in May 2016 which entailed establishment of transit and transport corridor among the three countries using Chabahar Port as one of the regional hubs for sea transportation in Iran, besides multi-modal transport of goods and passengers across the three nations.
The first phase of Shahid Beheshti terminal of Chabahar was inaugurated in December 2017 by Rouhani, opening a new strategic route connecting the three neighbors.
Inauguration of Shahid Beheshti Port (out of a total of five development phases), has tripled Chabahar's capacity to 8.5 million tons (equal to that of all the northern ports in Iran).
It allows the docking of super-large container ships (between 100,000 DWT and 120,000 DWT) and improves India’s connectivity to Afghanistan.
Chabahar is of strategic importance for Iran as it is the country’s only oceanic port, which bypasses the narrow choke point of Strait of Hormuz connected to the Persian Gulf.
It is 70 kilometers west from Gwadar port, the starting point of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The China Overseas Port Holding Company operates Gwadar port.
