TEHRAN- The representative of Hamedan’s people to the parliament announced that 600 billion rials (about $14.28 million) has been allocated to Tehran-Hamedan railway project.

Hamid-Reza Haji-Babaei said this large development project of the province has an independent line in the country's budget bill (for the next Iranian calendar year, which starts on March 21, 2021).

He also put the allocated fund to this project at 300 billion rials (about $7.14 million) in the budget law of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2020-March 20, 2021).

The first passenger train from Tehran to Hamedan was inaugurated in March 2019, establishing a new link between the capital city Tehran, and Hamedan city in west-central Iran.

Construction operations of the rail route started in 2005.

Back in November, Deputy Transport Minister Kheirollah Khademi said some 3956 kilometers of roads and railways worth 240 trillion rials (about $5.7 billion) were going to be inaugurated throughout the country by the end of the Iranian calendar year 1400 (March 2022).

According to Khademi, over 3400 km of new railways are under construction across the country, of which eight projects with a length of 1560 km are the Transport Ministry’s priority.

The development of the railway sector is one of the macro policies of the Iranian government as it has been emphasized by the general policies of the Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (2016-2021).

Advantages such as consuming less fuel and creating less pollution as well as high safety attaches priority to the railway when compared to some other transportation systems, and makes its development economically viable.

In this regard, in addition to infrastructure projects, the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (known as RAI) has also been implementing new programs for replacing old wagons and locomotives with new ones to reduce the age of the country’s fleet.

As reported, some 521 units of various types of wagons and locomotives worth 13.5 trillion rials (about $322.8 million) have been produced in the country and joined the national railway fleet since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2020).

MA/MA