MNA � Deputy head of Iran Railways company said the railroad project to connect Iran to Afghanistan had made significant progress and was 80 per cent through.


Hossein Ashoori, Vice President of Operation and International Transportation at Railways of Islamic Republic of Iran (RAI), touched upon connection of rail networks of Iran and Afghanistan as a major rail project saying �the railroad has so far reached the border from the Iranian side though its extension on the Afghan soil will be completed by the end of the next Iranian year (to begin March 21, 2018).�

�Meanwhile, 50 kilometers of railroad have been constructed in the soil of Afghanistan,� underlined the official asserting that the project was 80% through overall.

Upon completion, the railroad will link the Iranian city of Khwaf in the northeastern Khorasan Razavi Province to Herat, Afghanistan�s third-largest city. The first section of the route, from Khwaf to the mine-rich city of Sangan, became operational early September. The second section extends to the border city of Shamtigh in Afghanistan. The other two sections are in the Afghan territory covering 114 km from Shamtigh to Herat. The 62-km section 3, connecting Shamtigh to Ghurian, is being built by Iran.

At another part of his remarks, Railway official Ashouri reported on displacement of 19 million tons of goods through rail transit in the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (began March 21, 2017).

�The figure indicated a 15-percent growth as compared to the corresponding period last year,� he maintained.

He said, in the meantime, the greatest rise in displacement pertained to transit (54%) and exported commodities (13%).

Ashouri, while calling for more support for Iranian exporters, expressed optimism that further increase will be observed in rail transit by the end of the ongoing year.