Tehran-Karbala train starts

Tehran, IRNA – The first Tehran-Karbala combined train started its journey from Tehran, and one train every week for three months is scheduled for Tehran-Shalamcheh route. According to Iran's Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, this train will take the pilgrims from Tehran to the border city of Shalamcheh in Khorramshahr City of Khouzestan Province and after a 30-kilomter trip by bus to the Iraqi city of Basra, they can continue their journey to Karbala, where Imam Hossein's mausoleum lies, via train. Accordingly, Iranian and Iraqi officials recently had held talks on the preparations for the religious ceremony of Arbaeen and the two sides decided to launch the route with one train a week for the first three weeks as a test run for the pilgrims. Every year, millions of Muslims from Iran, Iraq and many other countries set out on an 80-kilometer-long walk from the holy city of Najaf, where Imam Hossein's father Imam Ali (AS)’s shrine is located, to Imam Hossein’s shrine in Karbala. Follow us on Twitter @IrnaEnglish