The project, worth $1.2 billion, will electrify a railroad connecting the city
of Garmsar near Tehran with Incheboron near the border with Turkmenistan. The
length of the Garmsar- Incheboron railway line is 495km.
The project will double the maximum speed on the link, while its capacity will
grow fourfold to 10 million tons per year, according to the head of Russian
Railways, Oleg Belozerov, who is visiting Iran to see the start of the work, RT
reported.
The railway stretches to Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, linking Central Asia to
the Persian Gulf and beyond.
"It will also increase safety and reduce emissions into the atmosphere. All this
creates conditions for the growth of cargo turnover along the international
transport corridor ‘North-South’ and intensification of economic relations in
the Caspian region,” Belozerov said.
The International North-South Transport Corridor is a 7,200-km multi-mode
network of ship, rail, and road route through India, Iran, Azerbaijan, and
Russia.
Electrification will take about 4.5 years. It provides for the electrification
of the Garmsar- Incheboron line with a total length of 495 kilometers, including
203 kilometers in the highlands, 31 stations and 95 tunnels.
Russian Railways First Vice President Aleksandr Misharin said in April that the
project can be much broader than now. According to the official, Iran has
proposed railway electrification projects worth €3 billion to Russia.
Source: Tasnim