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12:54, 06-Sep-2017
New freight train service bound for Tehran launched in NW China
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A new freight train service bound for the Iranian capital of Tehran was launched from Yinchuan City of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region on Tuesday.
The first freight train departed at 10:00 a.m. from Yinchuan South Railway Station, carrying some 567 tons of cargo including mechanical equipment, daily necessities, ceramic tableware, crystal ware, as well as automobile accessories, worth around 1.6 million U.S. dollars in total.
The freight train will pass through central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan before reaching Iran. Compared with sea transportation, the new route will save 20 days in time.
Lying on the route of the Belt and Road Initiative, the Ningxia autonomous region has gained support from the central authorities to strengthen its role as a trade and logistics hub and an important industrial base connecting central, south, and west Asia.
Following the launch of the freight train, Ningxia will continue to explore and elaborate the Yinchuan-Tehran freight rail cooperation mechanism, including normalizing the freight trains' schedule, branding the service and attracting enterprises from all industries to work on International Capacity Cooperation (ICC) projects in the region.
The China-Arab States Expo opened in Yinchuan on Wednesday and it will close on Saturday.