Iran-Iraq railway promises 90M-liter fuel savings
Shafaq News- Tehran/ Baghdad
A 263-kilometer Iranian railway planned to connect with Baghdad and Khanaqin could carry five million tons of freight and 2.7 million passengers annually, according to Abbas Khatibi, deputy head of Iran’s Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company.
Khatibi stated that the Kermanshah-Khosravi railway comprises a 115-kilometer section between Kermanshah and Islamabad Gharb and another 148 kilometers extending to the Khosravi border crossing. Eslamabad-e-Gharb Governor Hamid Reza Karimi previously put construction progress on the first section at 57%, with infrastructure work 85% complete.
About 60% of the route crosses mountainous or hilly terrain and includes 11 tunnels and 3.6 kilometers of special bridges. Seven of the planned 8.7 kilometers of tunnels have been excavated, including 4.7 kilometers where lining work has been completed, Khatibi explained.
He estimated that completing the railway would require 40 trillion tomans, about $800 million, while reducing annual fuel consumption by about 90 million liters.
Fars News Agency reported on Thursday that Iraq would construct the Khosravi-Khanaqin section and rehabilitate the existing railway between Khanaqin and Baghdad to connect the two national networks –a plan formed as part of a railway memorandum signed during Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi’s visit to Tehran in the presence of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The two countries also signed agreements covering transportation, railway cooperation, training, and public administration.
