$125m for Chabahar-Zahedan Railroad

The government will allocate 5 trillion rials ($125 million at market exchange rate) for an under-construction railroad connecting Chabahar Port to the city of Zahedan, both in Sistan-Baluchestan, the southeastern province’s Governor General Ali Osat Hashemi announced.

Hashemi was quoted by IRNA as saying that President Hassan Rouhani has issued an order to Planning and Budget Organization to allocate the budget to the project.

Iran signed an agreement with India earlier this year for the railroad’s construction. India’s state-owned IRCON has agreed to establish the 500-km rail line from Chabahar to Zahedan at a cost of $1.6 billion as part of the transit corridor to Afghanistan.

After connecting Chabahar to Zahedan, the railroad will be linked to Zaranj in Afghanistan. When Afghan cargoes arrive in Zahedan, they can be transported by rail to Chabahar and then shipped to India.

Iran’s Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company said it will establish 591 kilometers of rail by the end of the current Iranian year (March 2017), predicting that the figure will reach 932 kilometers in the first half of next year.