TEHRAN – Iran’s Deputy Transport Minister for Resource Planning and Management says the county needs over 1.8 quadrillion rials (about $42.8 billion) of financial resources for completing its transportation infrastructure projects.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 4th International Exhibition of Transportation, Logistics, and Related Industries, Amir Mahmoud Ghaffari said: “In this regard, the Transport Development Fund has been established as the only specialized and financial institution in the field, for supporting the Transport Ministry’s infrastructure projects and the modernization of the transport fleet.”

According to Ghaffari, the main goal of the Transport Development Fund is to create a mechanism for providing sustainable revenue sources for the development of the country's transport infrastructure, equipping its fleet, promoting safety and increasing the level of freight and passenger transport services, while encouraging and supporting investment for construction, development, and maintenance of the transport networks and the country’s infrastructure.

The official also mentioned a 44-trillion-Yuan funding by foreign investors in the country’s railway projects, saying that the priority projects for this finance include Kermanshah-Khosravi railway in western Iran, Shiraz-Bushehr railway, Tehran-Qom-Isfahan railway, and Tehran-Hamedan-Sanandaj railway.

Back in June, Iran’s Transport and Urban Development Ministry announced that the government allocated 190 trillion rials (over $4.5 billion) for establishing a transport development fund.
According to Transport and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Eslami, “The establishment of the transport development fund was envisioned in the country’s Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (2016-2021) and 190 trillion rials was allocated in this regard.”

Opened by Transport Minister Mohammad Eslami on Sunday, the 4th International Exhibition of Transportation, Logistics, and Related Industries is being held in Tehran and will be wrapped up on Tuesday.

In the past two decades, Iran’s transportation infrastructure has gone through major transformation and every year the country is advancing more in this area.
Currently, more than 80 percent of the country’s roads are paved and the government is also hugely planning on expanding and developing the country’s railway network.

Since the country has numerous neighbors with which it has close trade ties, the expansion of land export routes including railway and roads in the border regions of the country have become the Transport and Urban Development Ministry’s top priority in the transportation area.

EF/MA