The added fleet included 107 newly-manufactured freight wagons and four locomotives as well as renovated nine passenger wagons and two locomotives, IRNA reported.
Wagon Pars Co., Kowsar Wagon Co., Derakhshan Steel Co., MAPNA Co., Novin Sanat Raja Company, Railpardaz System Co., Shahid Kolahdouz Industrial Company and Karaj Locomotive Overhauling Factories were domestic rolling stock manufacturers engaged in the project.
Investors in the project were Tejarat Kushesh Sepahan Co., General Mechanic Co., Azar Kia Trading Co., Railpardaz Noafarin Co., Tuka Rail Co. Pouya Tarabar Pishtaz Co., Raja Railway Transport Co. and IRIR.
The newly-added fleet will create 565 jobs in the country’s rail sector.
Overall, 451 locomotives and passenger and cargo wagons worth 9.33 trillion rials ($33.86 million) have been added to Iran’s rail fleet since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 20), to register a 16% increase compared with the similar period of last year.
Rasouli said during the ceremony that 15 crane locomotives have also been supplied using foreign funds, which have now joined the rail system.
He noted that negotiations for these foreign funds were made in previous years, but did not provide any figures for the amount of these funds or the countries that provided them.
The official said Iran has succeeded in manufacturing wagon brakes.
“We had managed to manufacture some parts of this system before, but this is the first time that 100% locally-made wagon brakes have been installed on our rail fleet,” the official was quoted as saying by ILNA.
“Iranian rail transport companies have placed orders with domestic companies for manufacturing a total of 8,077 rolling stock.”
Eslami told Mehr News Agency that the government has set a goal of producing and overhauling 2,000 rolling stock by the fiscal yearend (March 20, 2021) and that to reach the goal, the Roads Ministry has issued permits for passenger wagon manufacturers to also produce freight wagons.
IRIR has signed a contract with IRICO for the rolling stock manufacturer to overhaul locomotives and wagons as part of the plan to reach the set target.
IRICO, founded in 2003, is an Iranian manufacturer of passenger rolling stock. The company is headquartered in Tehran and has a factory in Zanjan Province’s Abhar County where it designs and manufactures various types of rolling stock such as passenger coaches, metro cars, Diesel Multiple Units (RailBus DMU), various freight wagons and bogies in accordance with the standards of the International Union of Railways.
Eslami also told Fars News Agency that last year a total of 788 locally-made rolling stock worth 12.7 trillion rials (46 million) joined the Iranian rail network, adding that the government aims to increase this figure by 45% by the end of the current fiscal yeatr.
The official said last year that to meet domestic demand for wagons and locomotives, the government is giving priority to local manufacturers and their production capacity.
With the aim of reducing road traffic and battling air pollution, the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development has placed the development of Iran’s rail sector on top of its agenda.
Iran’s Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (2017-22) has tasked the government with increasing the share of rail in cargo and passenger transportation to 30% and 20% respectively by the end of the plan.
The roads minister said in September that before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the share of rail in cargo transportation stood close to 13% and estimated that the figure will rise to 15% by the yearend.
The share of rail in passenger transportation currently amounts to 8%.