Rome, January 25, 2016
Gruppo Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane gives its first - line treatment to develop the rail network of the Iran.
Since 2001, Gruppo FS Italiane is active on the territory. and recently it has contacted again the Iranian Railways (RAI). It is now involved in Iran, in addition to the holding companies, also through Italferr (engineering company) and Italcertifer (certification).
The first was selected to provide technical assistance for the project of the high-speed line Tehran-Qom-Isfahan (about 400 km). It is also giving assistance for the electrification of the line Tehran-Mashhad (about 900 km). Italcertifer is opened to the Iranian market since about two years: it's working on the preliminary project of the Test Centre of the Iranian Railways (Infrastructures and Rolling Stock) and participated to the invitation to tender of the underground of Mashhad, with a result of “preferred bidder”, and it's now waiting to sign the contract.
Iran's railway infrastructure covers about 10,000 km and has planned an extension of the network up to 25,000 km in 2025, of which 7,500 km of the line are already under construction.
The MOU (Memorandum of Understanding), signed today by the Italian Minister of Infrastructure and Transports Graziano Delrio and his Iranian counterpart Abbas Akhoundi, creates the conditions in order that the railway system of our country, with a strong leadership of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, will have a role of main partner in development of the Iranian rail network.
In the last December 15, the Deputy Minister of Transport Aghaei, the RAI President (Iranian Railways), had met the CEO of FS Italiane Renato Mazzoncini and visited the facilities of Gruppo FS Italiane, with a travel also on the High Speed network.