German engineering giant Siemens is set to finance infrastructure projects worth $3.5bn (€3bn) in Iran, according to the official PressTV news agency.
Asghar Fakhriyeh-Kashan, deputy minister for urban development, said yesterday (7 August) that he had discussed Siemens’ participation in rail and power projects during his trip to Germany.
Fakhriyeh-Kashan said the locomotives would be used on a future high-speed line between Tehran, Qom and Isfahan. China Railway Group is presently carrying out a $1.8bn electrification of this link.
Siemens was one of the first companies to re-enter the Iranian market after the lifting of sanctions in January 2016. It has already agreed to play a part in the modernising of Iran’s rail system. In October last year it agreed to supply 50 diesel-electric locomotives to Iranian Railways.
Siegfried Russwurm, a member of Siemens managing board, said at the time: “As Iran seeks to modernise its railway infrastructure, Siemens is proud to support these ambitions with modern rail systems. We look forward to contributing to the country’s sustainable economic development, of which rail is a key component.”
In September last year Siemens began shipping its F-class power turbine to Iran. The turbine is expected to provide the backbone of the next generation of Iranian power stations. Iran is planning to expand its installed generating capacity from 74GW to 100GW over the coming five years.
Iran is planning to spend around $25bn on the modernising of its rail system over the next 10 years.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Railways has also announced that it will launch a number of rail corridors to Europe using existing infrastructure.
An official of the IRIR told the Financial Tribune website last month: “The planned corridors include a route from Azerbaijan and Russia, another from Georgia and Black Sea, and a third through Turkey, which has recently been negotiated. We have been discussing parallel routes with German companies and the officials of participating states.”
German firms DHL, Deutsche Bahn are among those involved in setting up the routes.
Image: An F-class Siemens turbine on its way to Iran last year (Siemens)
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