Mashhad, April 27, IRNA -- Some 500 kilometers out of a projected
1,000-km-long railroad project here in Khorassan province,
northeastern Iran, has been completed, said a provincial official
here Tuesday.
The 928-km-long Mashhad-Bafq railroad would link this provincial
capital city to the city of Bafq, northeast of Mashhad, the project's
executive manager Mehdi Esmaeili told IRNA here.
About 70 percent of work on the project, which was launched four
years ago in this province, is finished and the remaining 30 percent
within the next two years, he said.
The railroad, once operational, would have an annual transport
capacity of about two million passengers and 10 million tons
of cargoes, Esmaeili added.
The Mashhad-Bafq railroad would also shorten the travel distance
from the city of Sarakhs (northeast of Mashhad) to the southern port
city of Bandar Abbas (capital of southern Hormuzgan province) to 280
kilometers from the current 2,700 kilometers, he said.
He said the railroad would also open up landlocked Khorassan
province to international trade.
