World Bank to loan Iran 1bn euros to electrify railroads

EghtesadOnline: The World Bank has agreed to finance the project of electrifying the northern division of Iran railroad by granting a 1-billon-euro loan to the country, said an Iranian railroad official.

News ID: ۷۷۸۷۲۱

22 August 2017

Director General of Northern Iran Railroads Company, Yousef Geran-Pasha said, 'The project will soon start and takes three years to finish.'

According to IRNA, he added that Iran signed a contract with Russia for electrifying the 500-kilometer-long Garmsar-Incheh Boroun Railroad in northern Iran during a meeting between the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Iran’s northern rail network starts from Garmsar Station in Semnan Province, located in the east of Tehran Province, and passes through Mazandaran Province to end at Gorgan Station. The two latter provinces are located on the southern coasts of the Caspian Sea.

Geran-Pasha said that electrifying the railway will considerably reduce the air and sound pollutions, fuel consumption, and will also reduce the chance of fatal accidents; a large part of the railroad perforce passes through the residential areas.

Saying that the project will also triple the capacity of cargo transfer to 7.5 million tons a year, Geran-Pasha added, 'On Wednesday, there will be a meeting to finalize the project.'

This is the second electrified railroad in Iran; the first one was built in northwestern city of Tabriz four decades ago.