Iran is planning to boost transit of goods through strengthening coordination between its flagship cargo shipping line and its state-owned railway system.
Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (IRIR) signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation for transit of commodities, IRNA reported.
Based on the agreement, some scheduled container trains will start operation to boost transit of goods through Iran and the two sides will jointly establish logistic terminals for container commodities.
Signing this agreement is in line with Iran’s plans for boosting transit of goods through International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).
INSTC is a 7,200-km-long multi-mode network of ship, rail, and road route for moving freight between India, Iran, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe.
There are four ports in Iran that are connected to the railway network and currently the railway system accounts for only 14 percent of transportation from and to the ports.
Connecting the ports to the railway network has been emphasized by Transport and Urban Development Ministry and also Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) over recent years.
Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Eslami has said the country is capable of boosting its capacity of transit of commodities to 50 million tons per year.
Making the remarks in a ceremony to celebrate the National Transportation Day on Tuesday, the minister stressed that a double effort is required to achieve this goal.
“We should make an essential improvement in our logistics power to gain our share of transit”, Eslami further emphasized.