IRAN: Italy’s Minister of Infrastructure & Transport Graziano Delrio and his Iranian counterpart Abbas Akhoundi signed a memorandum of understanding for co-operation in the rail sector when Iran’s President Rouhani visited Italy on January 25.
Italian national railway group FS said it had been active in the region since 2001, and has recently restarted contacts with its Iranian equivalent RAI. The Italian group’s Italferr engineering subsidiary is to provide technical assistance for the design of the 400 km Tehran – Qom – Esfahan fast line, while Italcertifer is to provide certification services for the 900 km Tehran – Mashhad electrification project and has been working on preliminary designs for an Iranian infrastructure and rolling stock testing facility. It is also preferred bidder for a metro contract in Mashhad.
