Russia eyeing new Iran rail electrification project

EghtesadOnline: Russia has announced readiness to electrify a main railway that connects the Iranian capital Tehran to the northwestern city of Tabriz.

News ID: ۷۷۶۹۳۲

11 June 2017

According to PressTV, First Vice President of Russian Railways operator Alexander Misharin told reporters in Sochi that he had presented the proposal in a meeting with the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (RAI) Saeed Mohammadzadeh.

"We are discussing the following electrification segments: Tehran -Tabriz, around 600 kilometers," Misharin was quoted as saying by Russia’s TASS news agency.

Appropriate agreements can be made this year, he added.

Russia and Iran signed an agreement worth €1.2 billion in November 2015 to electrify a train line that would connect north-central Iran to the northeastern border with Turkmenistan.

The agreement between Russian Railways and the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (RAI) envisages constructing power stations and overhead power lines along the Garmsar-Sari-Gorgan-Inche Burun route in Iran.

The train line, among the first in Iran with a history of 80 years, extends to Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan and links the Central Asia to the Persian Gulf and beyond.

On a related front, other officials from Russian Railways said the company would start the project in 2018, TASS report added.

The project will cover 32 stations and 95 tunnels, 7 traction substations, 11 section pillars, 6 duty posts of the contact station and power supply administration building. According to preliminary estimates, the project will be implemented in 36 months.

Russia will be financing the project as part of its $5 billion credit line for infrastructure projects in Iran. Russian state lender Vnesheconombank will grant another 2 billion euro export loan to the Islamic Republic.