TEHRAN - Head of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (known as RAI) said the facilities allocated for compensating the damages caused by the coronavirus outbreak for passenger rail transport companies are due to be paid as of early September.

Speaking to IRIB, Saeed Rasouli said 9.4 trillion rials (about $223.8 million) was allocated by the government to compensate for the damage caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus, especially the decline in the passenger traffic.

A quota has been set for each company and these companies have been introduced to the acting banks to go through the administrative process, but to date, no rail transport company has received these facilities, Rasouli said.

Referring to the sharp decline in revenues of rail passenger companies after the coronavirus outbreak, the official added: "In the past six months, the revenues of railway passenger companies have fallen sharply and the financial condition of most of them has become acute. And since none of the employees of these companies have been fired, we expect the banking system to hasten the process for the payment of these facilities.”

He noted that most of the companies eligible for receiving the mentioned facilities are at the stage of completing documents or providing collateral, and based on the serious follow-ups by the Transport Ministry and the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways, hopefully, these companies will be able to receive the support loan by early September.

Back in June, Rasouli had announced that 63 companies were going to benefit from the mentioned facilities.

Speaking in a press conference on June 6, the RAI head noted that the eligible companies will be offered facilities with low-interest rates.

EF/MA