There are (once again!) reports that the railway under construction between Iran and Herat will open by the next Iranian new year, that is March 2018.
Iran’s Mehr News Agency reports that Hossein Ashouri, Deputy Head of Operations at Railways of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has said the line has now been built to the Afghan border. On the Afghan side of the border the civil works are in place but the tracks still need to be laid. Of the two construction phases on the Afghan side of the border, “foundations of one is 50% through while the figure for the other is 25%”.1
However the opening date for the line has long been a bit of a moving target, having been announced in previous years.
There are various news articles drawing on the same source, with assorted photographs which may or may not show the line in question – many do not.
References
- Railroad to connect Iran, Afghanistan, Mehr News Agency, 25 February 2017 ↩