Iran minister due in Russia to 'operationalize' $5billion loan

Young journalists club

News ID: 44263
Iran » Iran
Publish Date: 12:31 - 21 November 2019
TEHRAN, Nov 21_Iran’s Energy Minister Reza Ardekanian says he will head to Moscow on Thursday to “operationalize” a $5 billion credit line for infrastructure projects.

Iran minister due in Russia to 'operationalize' $5billion loanTEHRAN, Young Journalists Club(YJC)_The idea for Russia to provide the loan to Iran was first conceived in 2015, but the final documents were signed only in September this year.

The loan will be used mainly in the construction of a 1,400 megawatt thermal power plant in Sirik in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province at a cost of $1.2 billion and electrification of a 500 km railway line linking Garmsar in central Iran to the Inche Burun border with Turkmenistan at about $1 billion, he said Wednesday.

“For the remainder of the $5 billion, lost of follow-up work was done which fortunately yielded results just recently,” Ardekanian told reporters in Tehran.

Part of the credit line, he said, will be used to finance building 2,000 train carriages for use in inner city transportation and to build a railway between Zahedan in southeast to Birjand in northeast Iran.

The rest will be used in expanding Gotvand hydropower plant's capacity to 1,640 MW from 1,000 MW and create another 180 MW capacity at natural gas-fired Ramin power plant in Ahvaz.

Ardekanian said delegates from Iran’s ministry of finance, the central bank, ministry of industry, mine and trade and ministries of transportation and energy will attend final negotiations in Moscow Thursday.

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