President Ebrahim Raisi inaugurated a railroad in northwest Iran on Friday.
The 44-kilometer Bostanabad-Tabriz route saw a maiden train leave from the new Khavaran station in East Azarbaijan Province to the capital city Tehran.
This is the second phase of Mianeh-Tabriz mega project. The first phase stretching 132 kilometers was inaugurated in the fiscal 2020-21, IRNA reported, while work on the third and final phase, which is 29 kilometers long, has already started.
The 205-km East Azarbaijan Province is among the main priorities of Iran’s rail authorities for reducing travel time and distance between Tehran and Tabriz, the capital of East Azarbaijan Province via railroad to 114 km and four hours respectively for passenger services. For cargo services, the travel time will be cut short to five hours. Traveling speed on this route is targeted at 120 km/hour for cargo services and 160 km/hour for passenger services.
It is touted as the “greenest” Iranian railroad due to the expected reduction in fuel consumption and accidents along the way, in addition to its location in Iran’s picturesque region.
Authorities are also seeking to use electric locomotives on the Tehran-Tabriz route.
Around 30,000 billion rials ($60 million at the current free market exchange rate) have been spent in government funding on the project so far.
All railroads used in the newly-inaugurated project have been produced domestically.
Part of TRACECA
The mega project is part of the so-called TRACECA, acronym for Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia — an international transport program involving the European Union and 12 member states of the Eastern European, Caucasus, and Central Asian region.
The program aims to strengthen economic, trade and transport relations in the regions of the Black Sea basin, South Caucasus and Central Asia. It has a permanent Secretariat, originally financed by the European Commission, in Baku, Azerbaijan, and a regional office in Odesa, Ukraine. Since 2009, the organization has been entirely financed by member countries.
The East-West corridor sees connections from Mashhad in northeast Iran to Turkish border in northwest and from there to Europe.
TRACECA was established in May 1993 in Brussels, Belgium, upon the signing of a multilateral agreement on international transport for the development of transport initiatives (including the establishment and development of a road corridor) between the EU member states, Eastern European, Caucasus and Central Asian countries. The program supports the political and economic independence of former Soviet Union republics by enhancing their access to European and global markets through road, rail and sea. The objectives of TRACECA were underlined by the Baku Initiative of 2004, followed by a further ministerial conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2006.
Iran officially joined TRACECA in 2009 after their request was accepted during a meeting held in Brussels. However, technical assistance related to the project has not been provided to Iran since 2010 due to EU sanctions.
Mongolia was granted observer status in 1996 and Lithuania was granted the same in 2009.
In July 2016, Greece announced they are considering joining TRACECA activities as an observer.
In March 2018, Greece was granted observer status during a meeting held in Yerevan, Armenia.
Over 15K Kilometers of Railroad
According to the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, Iran has more than 15,000 kilometers of railroad.
There are 986 locomotives, in addition to 29,741 freight wagons in the domestic rail fleet. However, around 50% of Iran’s locomotives are out of order and there is a severe shortage in the country’s rail freight fleet.
Rolling stock imports are banned and the market is entirely supplied by domestic producers, mainly Arak Province’s Wagon Pars Company, Isfahan’s Kowsar Wagon Company, Derakhshan Steel Company and MAPNA Company.
Wagon Pars Company unveiled Iran’s first domestically-manufactured locomotive in November 2020.
Launched in 1974 in the city of Arak in Markazi Province, Wagon Pars is a subsidiary of the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran and the largest manufacturer of freight, passenger and subway wagons in the Middle East.
Iran has also succeeded in manufacturing wagon brakes.
Major Projects Across the Country
Apart of the Mianeh-Tabriz project, other major rail projects in Iran at the moment include Rasht-Astara, Khaf-Herat and Shalamcheh-Basra.
Earlier in May, Russia and Iran signed a cooperation agreement on financing the design, construction and provision of goods and services for the construction of the Rasht-Astara railroad. The document was signed in the presence of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and President Vladimir Putin, who joined the ceremony by video call.
It was also reported that Russia will provide an intergovernmental loan of 1.3 billion euros to build the rail line, which is expected to be built by the end of 2027. The overall cost of the project is 1.6 billion euros.
Russia and Iran will in the coming months prepare a general contract on the construction of the Rasht-Astara railroad in Iran, which is part of the North-South international transport corridor, Russian Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev told reporters last month.
"During a visit to Iran we talked through the main terms. Now we are exchanging letters, as we agreed with the transport minister of Iran, Mehrdad Bazrpash, and will present our companies from both sides that will participate in this. We think that in the near future a few months might be needed to draft a general, main, contract between our companies for them to start implementing this project. Money has been allocated, now we need to prepare for implementation," Savelyev said when asked if a construction contract had been signed.
He added that the railroad will be built jointly, but there will be a separation.
"Construction materials that are clearly significantly cheaper in Iran, such as cement, sand and gravel, will be acquired in Iran. More complex products, the main component of the financing, will go to Russian companies. This is rails, prefabricated concrete products, locomotives, automation equipment, signaling and so on," Savelyev said, noting that "we are now quickly looking for companies from both sides that will participate in this."
Asked about the planned gauge of the track, he said the plan is to build a dual gauge line.
"We will start with 1435 gauge, but we will build a dual gauge that will make it possible to lay another rail [for 1520 gauge] if it is necessary to expand shipping volume," Savelyev said.
Freight Train Piloted
Afghanistan Railway Authority announced last month that a test run saw a freight train arrive in Herat Province via the Khaf-Herat railroad.
Herat railroad officials said the freight weighed more than 600 tons, and was made up of equipment and supplies for the company that built Khaf-Herat railroad, Ariana News reported.
According to officials, an Iranian delegation arrived in Herat, also by rail, and the two sides discussed sustainable transportation via railroad.
Mufti Mohammad Nasim Mohammadi, the head of Herat Railway Department, said the shipment included 17 wagons that have transferred 655 tons of rail equipment and facilities for the contracting company.
Currently, this railroad has entered Herat as a test, but the process of transporting commercial goods through the Khaf-Herat railroad will start soon, officials said.
Finally, the Iraqi Republic Railways Company and its Iranian counterpart signed a memorandum of understanding also in May, outlining the executive procedures for establishing a rail connection between the two countries.
The MoU was signed at the Iranian Consulate in Basra Province by the General Director of the Iraqi Republic Railways Company and the Executive Director of the Iranian Railways Company, Shafaq News reported.
During their visit, officials from both countries inspected the border region for the project, following the maps approved by both sides. This included the Shalamcheh border region in southwestern Iran, the newly-established passenger station there, and the route under study from this border to the Arvand River on the Iranian side.
They also examined the banks of the aforementioned river and the central part of it, known as "Sindbad Island" in Iraq, specifically the location for the construction of the bridge and a new passenger station in Basra.
After six hours of negotiations, both parties agreed on the precise route for the railroad from Shalamcheh to the Arvand River and established a specific timeline for the executive operations of the rail connection between Shalamjeh and Basra.
This included scheduling operations for mine clearance and the construction of rail infrastructure from Shalamcheh to Arvand (Shatt al-Arab on the Iraqi side) and the handover of land for studies on the bridge's supporting structures, which will connect the riverbanks.
Additionally, the Assistant for Technical Affairs of the Iraqi Republic Railways Company and their Iranian counterpart signed a map outlining the rail route, which was accompanied by the MoU detailing the executive procedures for the rail connection between the two countries.
The Shatt al-Arab known as Arvandroud in Iran is a river 200 kilometers long that is formed at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the town of al-Qurnah in the Basra Governorate of southern Iraq. The southern end of the river constitutes the Iran–Iraq border down to its mouth, where it discharges into the Persian Gulf. The Shatt al-Arab varies in width from about 232 meters at Basra to 800 meters at its mouth.
“Iraq has allocated a budget of nearly $230 million for the Shalamcheh-Basra railroad and this is happening for the first time,” Iran’s deputy foreign minister for economic diplomacy, Mehdi Safari, was quoted as saying.
He was speaking after Iraq’s transport minister, Razzaq Muhibis Al-Saadawi, visited Tehran to finalize bilateral agreements and projects, including the cross-border railroad.
Al-Saadawi met with his Iranian counterpart, Mehrdad Bazrpash, who said that the first phase of construction will involve demining the border area that has remained inaccessible since the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988.
This would be followed by work to build an 880-meter moveable bridge across the Shatt Al-Arab River in Iraq, undertaken by Iranian contractors.
Tracklaying is due to start at the same time, with other infrastructure work to be undertaken by the Iraqi Republic Railways.
