Iran’s rail industry drawing overseas investments

Iran’s rail industry is seen as an emerging market in the world with a huge investment potential which is already attracting a host of foreign players.

The Forbes in an article said the Islamic Republic had devoted 1 percent of its oil and gas sales to rail development – an initiative that could provide $25 billion for the country’s projects to revitalize its existing rail network as well as add on 10,000 kilometers of new rail lines by 2025.

It added that the same initiative could create a yearly demand for roughly 8,000-10,000 new wagons in Iran.

Iran’s rail ambitions are currently a shining beacon for rail engineering and rolling stock firms from all over the world, Forbes added in its article.

China, it said, was one of the leading countries set to make heavy investments in Iran’s rail projects.

In early 2017, Beijing a $1.5 billion deal to provide funds to electrify the rail line from Tehran to Mashhad.  The project – that could provide a crucial link in a major commercial rail connectivity project between Iran and China – would be in line with a larger scheme to increase the level of trade between the two countries to as high as $600 billion per year within the next decade.

Forbes identified Germany as the next country with high ambitions over investments in Iran’s rail industry. This was specifically evident, it said, in a $3.5-billion scheme that the Germans had devised to provided new signaling system for Tehran-Tabriz railroad, as well as deals to supply locomotives for the country’s train’s fleet.

Others that have sealed deals in Iran’s rail sector include Italy, France, Russia, and Japan.

By revolutionizing its railway sector, Iran could essentially put itself back on the map as the central hub of Eurasia, Forbes concluded.