Russia to help Iran electrify Northern Railway
Iran’s Northern Railway will be electrified in cooperation with Russia at a cost of €1.2 billion, a provincial official announced.
“The project to electrify Iran’s northern railways will be put into operation, costing €1.2 billion, in cooperation with the Russian side within the framework of a joint venture project,” said Director General of Iranian Northern Railway Yousef Geran Pasha, according to Fars News Agency.
He noted that electrification of railways is the most important project in the Iranian Northern Railway for the year which started on March 21.
“So far, several expert-level meetings have been held with the Russian side and it is expected that operation of electrification of northern railways will begin soon,” Pasha added.
In June 2015, Iranian and Chinese officials finalized a two-billion-dollar deal to electrify the railway linking the capital city of Tehran to the holy city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran and said the project will be implemented in less than four years.
“The two-billion-dollar project for electrification of Tehranmashhad railway has been finalized and it has also received (necessary) approval of Iran’s Economy Council and we are introducing the project to the Chinese Investment Insurance Company on behalf of the Central Bank of Iran,” said Manager of the Electrification Project of Iran’s Railways Qassem Saketi.
He underlined that the project will be completed in 42 months, and said, “The electrification project will shorten the travel time between Tehran and Mashhad to six hours from the current minimum 12 hours as the train’s top speed will hit the 200 km/h maximum.”
Saketi said that his department has obtained the necessary licenses for implementing the project through 85 percent of foreign finance.
The remaining 15 percent will be financed by the (Iranian) government, he added, noting that the project would be implemented within the framework of the engineering, procurement, construction and finance (EPCF) contract.
Saketi said once the project is accomplished, “the passenger capacity of Tehran-mashhad railway will be increased from 14 million passengers per year to 35 million”.
He elaborated that the electrification project would increase the cargo capacity of Tehran-mashhad railway to 10 million tons per year.