The volume of transit via Iranian railroad has hit the highest over the past century.
A total of 1.73 million tons of foreign goods were transited from Iran via railroad during the current Iranian year’s first 11 months (March 21, 2021-Feb. 19), more than double that of last Iranian year, according to the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways.
“Last year [March 2020-21], only 805,000 tons of goods were transited via Iranian railroads,” Miad Salehi was also quoted as saying by the news portal of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development.
The official noted that exports via the country’s railroads stood at 1.71 million tons during the same period, adding that overall rail exports last year stood at 1.47 million tons.
“Iran’s rail freight transport grew by 29% in the last fiscal year [March 2020-21] compared with the year before, despite border closures during the first four months of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Saeed Rasouli, former managing director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways, told a virtual meeting of the 36th Conference of the Organization for Cooperation of Railways in April 2021.
“Exports by the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways increased by 5% in the last fiscal year [March 2020-21] compared with the year before. More than 650,000 tons of cargo were carried across the Iran-Turkey rail border crossing [Razi border terminal, Iran’s sole rail connection with the neighboring country], achieving a record high in the past 10 years,” IRNA quoted him as saying.
Major Railroad Ties With Turkey
Rail cargo transportation between Iran and Turkey constitutes a large share of the overall export and transit volume. The two countries were expecting bilateral exchanges via rail to reach 1 million tons in 2021.
The Transport and Infrastructure Ministry of Turkey has said in a statement that a memorandum of understanding signed in a gathering of rail representatives in Turkey's capital Ankara in January 2021 would open a new era for the transit railroad, Anadolu Agency reported.
Despite the novel coronavirus pandemic, three train services were run daily between Turkey and Iran in 2020, transporting 564,000 tons of cargo, according to the statement.
The statement also announced that freight trains would also run between Turkey and Pakistan via Iran on a common tariff used by the three countries.
With the completion of the railroad between Iran and Afghanistan, it is now also possible to transport freight between Turkey and Afghanistan.
"After the railroad connection between Iran and Afghanistan was completed on Dec. 10, 2020, it became possible for a wagon loaded in Turkey to transit through Iran to Afghanistan," it said.
The statement added that efforts were underway for a cargo transportation corridor through Iran between Europe and China.
Iran and Turkey traded $4.77 billion worth of goods in 2021 to register a 69.12% rise compared with the preceding year. Iran’s exports stood at $2.52 billion, up 145.18% year-on-year, while imports grew by 25.5% to $2.25 billion, according to Turkish Statistical Institute.
Khaf-Herat Project
The railroad connecting Iran and Afghanistan was inaugurated by former Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, and his Afghan counterpart, Ashraf Ghani, via videoconference.
“Today marks an unforgettable day in [the two nations’] history,” Rouhani said following the opening ceremony.
The Afghan president hailed the joint railroad as a “vital” and “historic” project.
“This project is a result of tireless efforts by both countries despite all restrictions,” he was quoted as saying by Afghan business news portal Wadsam.
Ghani said the railroad was a critically important project, not only for Afghanistan and Iran but also for the region and beyond.
“The opening of the Khaf-Herat railroad is a great step for the development and economic leap of Iran and Afghanistan,” Ghani was quoted as saying by Ariana News.
He said rail transport is the most efficient, important and cheapest means of transporting goods in Asia.
Rouhani said that through this rail link, Afghanistan will be connected to European countries.
“With the Herat-Khaaf railroad, Afghanistan will be connected to European countries as well as the Chabahar railroad,” he added.
Atta Nasib, the head of Afghanistan Investment Facilitation Unit, said that this will help turn Afghanistan into a transit hub.
“This railroad between Afghanistan and Iran is a major economic and strategic achievement for both countries, which will connect us to European countries,” said Nasib.
Ghani called the railroad a "precious gift from Iran" that would help restore the Silk Road, an ancient trade route that spread prosperity across Asia. The inauguration saw cargo trains depart from opposite ends of the line, AP reported.
According to Iran’s former roads minister, Mohammad Eslami, the 225-km-long railroad has been designed in four sections.
“Sections one and two are 78 kilometers long from Khaf County to Shamtigh border crossing in the northeastern Khorasan Razavi Province in the Iranian territory and section three is 62 kilometers long from the common border to Rozanak in Afghanistan. These three sections have been funded by Iran and constructed using Iranian expertise,” the official was quoted as saying by the news portal of the ministry of roads and urban development.
Eslami noted that the 85-kilometer-long Section 4, which has yet to be constructed, will continue to Herat, the neighboring country’s third largest city, and Afghanistan is committed to build it.
“The rail route between Iran and Afghanistan has been laid with the aim of increasing transit. Unified tariffs will be set in this and other transit points in the country,” Eslami was quoted as saying by ILNA.
“Preliminary negotiations have been made for Iranian experts to shoulder the construction of Section 4 in the Afghan territory in exchange for Afghanistan’s mineral products. Moreover, negotiations have been ongoing to continue the rail route to Mazar-i-Sharif, which will then be linked to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and China, completing a corridor connecting Iran to Central and East Asia.”
The Khaf-Herat project, said the minister, is part of Iran-Afghanistan rail corridor and can play a significant role in increasing Iran’s transit share in the region, from Russia to India and vice versa, in particular.
“The construction of the project began in the fiscal 2007-8 but was delayed due to security reasons in the region. Over the years, 4 trillion rials [over $15 million] worth of investments have gone into the project which is now worth a total of 15 trillion rials [over $57 million],” Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development Kheirollah Khademi was quoted as saying by Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture.
He told Iribnews.ir that the railroad will help boost Afghanistan’s development, complete and expand the rail network among the Economic Cooperation Organization member states, increase transit from Central Asia to India and restore Iran’s pivotal role as the connecting link between the East and West.
A trial freight train delivered more than 400 tons of cement from Iran to Rozanak in Herat Province of Afghanistan in December 2020, ahead of the ceremonial inauguration of the railroad.
A passenger train also carried Iranian railroad officials to and from a meeting with their Afghan counterparts.
The Afghanistan Railway Authority said the line forms one of its most important regional connectivity projects, as it will provide the land-locked country with a link to Iranian ports and to the rail networks of Iran, Turkey and Europe.
The new line is the first 1,435 mm gauge route in Afghanistan, matching the standard gauge networks in Iran and Turkey. The 75-km Uzbekistan–Mazar-i-Sharif line and the two short cross-border lines from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan are 1,520 mm gauge, Railway Gazette reported.
“The annual transit to Afghanistan from the Commonwealth of Independent States and Turkey amounting to 1.2 million tons and 500,000 tons respectively can be redirected to Khaf-Herat railroad,” Rasouli was quoted as saying.
“We are counting on Khaf-Herat railroad to play a significant role in boosting interactions between Iran and Afghanistan.”
Referring to the economic significance of the project, officials of Herat Chamber of Commerce and Industries have said that the implementation of the project will help expand exports and imports between Iran and Afghanistan.
“Khaf railroad project will help connect Herat to the entire world and develop our export ability,” said Abdul Latif Qanawizyan, a former Herat Chamber of Commerce and Industries official.
Iranian officials have said that the project will also help Afghanistan get easy access to Iranian ports at Chabahar and Bandar Abbas.
Shalamcheh-Basra Project
Iran and Iraq recently signed a memorandum of understanding to build the Shalamcheh-Basra railroad and Shatt al-Arab Bridge.
The agreement includes a roadmap and timetable for executing the project.
According to the signed agreement that Al-Monitor received a copy of, the project will be implemented by the railroad companies of both sides, and work will begin within two months.
The Iranian side agreed to withdraw from a portion of land inside Iraqi territory within 20 days to allow Iraq to build a workshop for the project. This land has been under Iran's control since the 1980s Iraq-imposed war.
The Iraqi side likewise agreed to acquire the required lands on both sides of the Shatt al-Arab.
Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Rostam Qasemi signed the deal on Dec. 26, during a four-day visit to Iraq in which he also met with President Barham Saleh and Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.
On Iranian television, he stated that he had discussed social and economic relations between the two countries, and noted that his support had led to the signing of the Shalamcheh-Basra railroad agreement.
"For almost 20 years," Qasemi said, "we have had numerous negotiations with Iraq for the implementation of the Shalamcheh-Basra railroad, and there were even many agreements in different periods, which never reached the desired result."
In 2015, the then-roads minister, Abbas Akhoundi, traveled to Abadan to start the extension of the railroad to the border, from Khorramshahr to Shalamcheh which is on the border with Iraq. Now, only 32 kilometers remain to connect the railroad from Shalamcheh to Basra.
The importance of this project, according to Salehi, is the completion of the east-west corridor.
"Our goal is to establish transit corridors and fix any deficiencies," he said at the time of signing the joint cooperation agreement.
Iranian authorities have always emphasized that completing the railroad will create an east-west rail transit corridor to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, passing through Iraq to Syria’s port of Latakia. It can bring many benefits to the three countries.
Since Iraq is one of Iran's largest economic partners, the connection could allow Iran to increase its trade with Iraq, Syria and Europe. Iran's exports to Iraq have so far reached $14 billion a year and Iran has set a $20 billion export target.
Despite Iran's keen interest in completing the corridor, the project has raised some sensitivities on the Iraqi side. Iraq is concerned about the marginalization of the port of Faw, and for this reason, Iraqi Minister of Transport Nasser al-Shibli stressed after signing the recent document that it was not an agreement, but a "meeting minutes" of the ministers' talks.
"We have made a covenant with the Iraqi people that no railroad connection project with neighboring countries will be implemented until the completion of the Faw Port project and the completion of the country's railroad infrastructure to connect with neighboring countries," he told Al-Iraqiyah news network.
But these concerns do not seem to be true, and the volume of trade is so great that the port of Faw will not be marginalized.
Today, Iran is connected to many surrounding countries, such as Russia, Turkey and recently Pakistan. The construction of the Shalamcheh-Basra railroad will connect Iraq to all of Iran, as well as to Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Far East. In addition, Iraq may in the future be on the transit route of goods between the south and the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf region with Central Asia and Russia.
Qasemi has said that although the initial agreement is to have a 50% stake, Iran will take a larger share of the investment if the Iraqi side agrees. He stated that this connection is very important for Iran and Iraq both in terms of transit issues and passenger movement, especially during the Arbaeen pilgrimage, when millions of Shias travel to Iraq for visiting Imam Hussein’s (PBUH) holy shrine, and the relationship between the two countries.
Qasemi predicted that following the recent agreement, the Shalamcheh-Basra railroad will be completed within two years.
