Iran’s Trains on the Rails of Corruption and Deterioration
More than a hundred people were killed and injured as a result of the latest rail accident in the country, an incident that occurred Wednesday morning, the eighteenth of Khordad, on the railway route between Yazd and Mashhad.
Miʿād Sālehi, Chief Executive of Iranian Railways, in the latest update on the cause of this accident said: “An obstacle created by a mechanical excavator on the train’s path and also the unauthorized speed of the locomotive have been identified as the primary factors in the Mashhad-Yazd train accident.”
The Chief Executive of Iranian Railways also told the IRNA news agency: “The operator of the mechanical excavator belonging to a private sector contractor, at a time when the workshop shift had ended, in a completely abnormal manner placed part of the excavator or mechanical boom on the track, which caused the accident to occur.
Well-informed sources told Voice of America that these equipment belonged to “one of the contracting companies under the Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, the economic arm of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, has for years become the main contractor for major economic and industrial projects of the Iranian government. From oil and gas projects to dam construction and road building in Iran falls within the scope of this headquarters’ activities. An institution that is accountable to no other organ or organization.
The Yazd-Mashhad train accident is the first rail disaster during the short presidency of Ibrahim Raisi. In the periods of previous Islamic Republic presidents, such catastrophes have been commonplace.
Disasters whose perpetrators or those responsible were never identified and which were forgotten after some time.
A number of transportation experts believe that in addition to the corruption existing in the awarding of infrastructure projects to trusted Revolutionary Guard companies without following technical and legal standards and procedures, the deterioration of railway lines and governments’ neglect in improving the railway situation have also had a significant impact on causing rail accidents and disasters in the years following the revolution.
Construction of Iran’s nationwide railway began in 1306 with a parliament resolution and reached operation in 1314, a route that was built according to the standards of that time and on a single track. Experts say that many of Iran’s nationwide railway lines have still not been converted to two-way operation, which has increased the risk of collisions and crashes.
Until the early twentieth century and during the Qajar dynasty period, Iran’s railway lines were limited to the Tehran-Shahr-e Ray line, but during the reign of Reza Shah, with his special attention to the development of the country, 140 kilometers of railway line was built annually in the country, so that in 1320 Iran had 2,700 kilometers of railway. This amount reached 4,567 kilometers by 1357.
In Mehr of 1400, Miʿād Sālehi, during his inauguration ceremony as Chief Executive of the Railway Company, said that in the fields of policy-making, technical, infrastructure, and technology we are suffering from significant shortcomings that must be remedied. He promised to upgrade the freight, passenger, and diesel fleets and repair deterioration, a promise that managers before him had also made but had not implemented.
Before managing the Iranian Railway Company, Miʿād Sālehi was the director of the Quran Radio Network and one of Iran’s distinguished Quran reciters.
Source: Voice of America
