Iran has awarded a Chinese company $2bn deal to to build a railway line that will link Tehran with the Iraqi border.

China’s Railroads Minister is expected to travel to Tehran on 12 September to sign the contract. It is not yet clear which Chinese company has signed the contract.

The new railway line will be 579 kilometres-long and will run from Tehran passing through the towns of Arak, Hamedan and Kermanshah before reaching the town of Khosravi, which is on the border with Iraq.

The line will benefit the thousands of pilgrims who travel from Iran to the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala.

Transport ministers from Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan are expected to meet in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe in October to discuss a planned 1,971km railway line that will link the three countries. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is currently funding a feasibility study for this project.

In February, the Asian Development Bank denied reports that it was funding a $2bn railway line from Iran to Armenia (MEED 9:2:10).

Media reports in Armenia at the end of January had said that the ADB would be issuing an international tender for the feasibility study into the construction of the railway in April 2010.