Iran and Türkiye to Increase Cooperation in Railway Transportation

Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development of Iran, Chairman of the Board and Railway Dr. Seyed Miad Salehi visited TCDD Transportation and TCDD General Directorates and the parties held a meeting in the TCDD General Directorate meeting room.

To the meeting; TCDD Transportation General Manager Ufuk Yalçın, TCDD General Manager Hasan Pezük, TCDD Technical General Manager Mustafa Özdöner, Deputy General Manager of European Union and Foreign Relations Aziz Aksu and relevant parties attended.

TCDD General Manager Hasan Pezük made the opening speech of the meeting and stated that they were pleased to host the Deputy Minister, esteemed Salehi and his delegation in our country and the General Directorate.

Pezuk: “I hope that the historical cooperation between Turkey and Iran, which is an indicator of the ancient civilization and unity, will continue in the field of railway. I believe that the cooperation between our countries and in the field of railway transportation will yield positive results. As TCDD, we attach importance to relations with Iran Railway. As two neighboring countries, we think it is important to increase transportation by rail. “We will continue our meeting, which we think will produce positive results to take our relations one step further and increase transportation to over 1 million tons,” he said.

“I believe that great breakthroughs will be made as a result of the new vision we will put forward in railway transportation.”

Stating that they are very happy to see the friendly and brotherly country, esteemed Salehi and his delegation in our country and our Institution, TCDD Transportation General Manager Ufuk Yalçın stated that this meeting, which coincides with the last month of 2023, will continue mutually in the coming years.

Ufuk Yalçın: “I believe that great breakthroughs will be made as a result of the new vision we will put forward in railway transportation. In this sense, TCDD Taşımacılık A.Ş. We will fulfill our responsibilities as before. And we plan to hold meetings more frequently throughout the year. There is already an ongoing meeting with the Iranian team at the border in Van. We are holding this meeting in Ankara, and when we hold the next one in Iran, I believe that we will manage our processes better when we hold them more frequently. Before moving on to the meeting agenda items, we can hold sub-meetings on issues concerning Taşımacılık A.Ş. “Welcome back,” he said.

“We are ready to increase rail transportation between the two countries”

Salehi, who started by thanking the hospitality of Mr. Ufuk Yalçın and Hasan Pezük, expressed his hope that the right steps would be taken to see an increase in railway transportation and to develop railway transportation.

Salehi said that the fact that the two countries are neighbors, their cultures are close, the two nations are similar to each other in terms of population, and also considering the railway technologies, all these factors are ready to increase the railway transportation, and said that as Iran Railways, there is no obstacle to increasing the transportation.

Stating that they are ready to overcome all obstacles in order to avoid any problems in the mutual transportation of one million tons of cargo, Salehi said: “Our priority is to increase transportation with neighboring countries, our most important neighbor, the Republic of Turkey, within the framework of peace, friendship and brotherhood. We are considering taking steps in this direction. Naturally, we can pursue a developing policy on this issue. We are ready to increase rail transportation between the two countries. Economic increases between the two countries will increase with the relations we will establish. We can ensure that the relationship between our countries gains momentum. “I am very happy to be at this meeting,” he said.

After the opening speeches, the agenda items of the meeting were discussed.

The measures that the Institutions should take to increase the amount of cargo transportation between Turkey and Iran to over one million tons were discussed. Technical details were consulted to restart passenger transportation between Tehran and Van. Solutions that would save time by making greater use of digital technologies at border crossings were discussed.

Source: Railly News