ACCORDING to Mr Yusef Gheranpasha, head of Iranian Islamic Republic Railways’ (RAI) northern region, a Russian bank has agreed a €1bn loan to help fund the electrification of the 500km line linking Garmsar, on the Tehran - Mashhad main line, with Gha’em Shahr, Bandar Turkman and Gorgan.

THE CEO of China’s Exim Bank Mr Sun Ping and the CEO of Iran’s Bank of Industry and Mining, Mr Ashraf Afkhami, signed a $US 1.5bn loan agreement in Tehran on July 25, which will finance the electrification of the 926km Tehran - Mashhad line.

ALSTOM has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Industrial Development and Renovation Organisation of Iran (IDRO), and Iranian Rail Industries Development Company (IRICO) to create a joint venture for the localised production of metro and suburban rolling stock for Iranian cities.

The initial 22km section of Tehran Line 7 from Meydane San’at in the north of the city to Basij in the southeast was inaugurated on June 11.

HAMEDAN, a city of nearly 500,000 inhabitants in western Iran, finally joined the national railway network on May 8, when the country’s president Dr Hassan Rouhani made an inaugural trip on the 276km line from Tehran.

THE Industrial Development and Renovation Organisation of Iran (Idro) has signed a joint venture contract with Transmashholding (TMH), Russia, to manufacture freight and passenger rolling stock in Iran.

THE Iranian city of Shiraz extended its first metro line on April 20 with the inauguration of the 3km southern section of Line 1 between Namazi and Zandiyeh.

AZERBAIJAN officially inaugurated a new cross-border link to the Iranian city of Astara on March 5 when the first test train crossed the newly-constructed dual-gauge (1520mm and 1435mm gauge) bridge over the Astarachay river, which divides the two countries.

THE Iranian city of Mashhad added a second line to its metro network on February 20 with the inauguration of an 8km section of the north-south Line 2 from Shohada to Kashfrood.