Iran Reveals Details of $5 Billion Loan from Russia

Reza Ardakanian said on Wednesday the loan will be paid according to an agreement made in 2016 to receive a $5 billion loan from Moscow.

“In that year, the parliament allowed the government to get up to $5 billion in low-interest loan from Russia. The $2.2 billion loan was used with the agreement of the Russian government to operate Incheboroun-Garmsar electric railway and build a 2-megawatt power plant in Hormozgan Province,” added the minister.

Ardakanian also announced that the remaining $2.8 billion would be used to implement four other projects.

“Zahedan-Birjand Railway, Gotvand Olya Hydroelectric Power Plant with capacity of 640 MW as well as reconstruction of Ahwaz Ramin Power Plant and increase of its capacity to 160 MW are among these projects.”

He also announced a fourth plan to provide more than 1,000 metro wagons to metropolises.

According to the minister of energy, negotiations are under way in the coming weeks to turn the deal into a contract.

Ardakanian further announced that the Secretary-General of Eurasian Economic Union will arrive in Tehran next week along with the ministers of the secretariat.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he said the meeting of the Joint Economic Commission with Tajikistan would be held after several years of interruption with the presence of the Tajikistan’s Minister of Water and Energy and its representatives in Tehran.