Iran-based Railway Services & Technical Construction Engineering Company (RSTC) has won the contract to build a 580-kilometre railway line in the south of the country.

The railway line will run from Shiraz to Bandar Abbas, which is on Iran’s Gulf coast. The construction of the line will be carried out on an engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) and financing basis. The work is expected to take 30 months to complete meaning the railway should be operational by 2014.

The railway line will run from Shiraz to Bandar Abbas … and is expected to take 30 months to complete

This is just one of many railway upgrades that Iran is planning over the next 20 years. In 2010, Iran’s railway system carried a total of 19.5 million passengers. The plan is to increase this figure to 82 million passengers in the next five years.

Iran’s Roads & Transportation Ministry received bids on 15 June for a contract to build a new railway line between Kermanshah and Khosravi in Kermanshah province, which is about 525 kilometres west of Tehran. An award is expected later this year.

Iran is also looking to improve its cross-border rail connections. In June, the Economic Cooperation Organisation said that Iran and Armenia are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding by September to build railway lines to connect the two countries (MEED 6:6:11).