3.9m tons of goods transited via Iran since March

TEHRAN,Aug.2(MNA) - Some 3.988 million tons of goods were transited through Iran during the first four months of this year, which began on March 20, showing 28 percent rise compared to the same period last year. The IRIB quoted the deputy roads and urban development minister Shahryar Afandizadeh as saying that 91 percent of the goods were transited via the road network and the rest through the rail network. The highest amounts of transited goods were respectively related to Iraq to UAE, Turkey to Turkmenistan, and UAE to Afghanistan, he noted. Iran is planning to transit 12 million tons of goods in the current calendar year, Afandizadeh said in June. The volume of transited goods showed 18 percent growth compared to the same period last year, he said on May 27. Some 11 million tons of goods were transited via Iran in the past calendar year, Afandizadeh said, adding that the figure was around 25 percent higher than the figure which has been stipulated in the fifth five-year development plan (2010-2015). Some 25,000 kilometers of railway is in operation across the country, the deputy roads and urban development minister Ahmad Sadeqi has said. He added that by the next two years all the country’s provinces will be connected together through the railroad network.