In the presence of the Minister of Roads and Urban Development, a memorandum of cooperation, worth over 1600 billion Tomans (IRR 16,000,000,000,000) has been signed between Tidewater Middle East Co. and the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways to develop the railway transportation of grain from the southern ports of Iran to Aprin Logistics Center.

According to the Public Relations Unit of Tidewater Middle East Co., during the event held this afternoon at the Ghadir Hall in the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways Co., a memorandum of cooperation was signed by Saeed Rasouli, the Managing Director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways, and Hossein Zarei, the Managing Director of Tidewater Middle East Co. This memorandum covers areas such as construction and commissioning of a grain terminal in the Aprin Logistics Center located in the southwest of Tehran by means of production of a silo with a capacity of 350 thousand tons, as well as construction and commission of a grain silo with a capacity of 180 thousand tons in Bandar Imam, and another silo with a capacity of 150 thousand tons in Shahid Rajaei Ports, as well as investment, manufacturing, and purchasing of 600 grain hopper wagons, and completing the rail network in Bandar Imam Khomeini and Shahid Rajaei Ports for single-route transport of grain. In this event, Hossein Zarei, the Managing Director of Tidewater Middle East Co., noted Tidewater’s extensive history of over 50 years in the business and its position as the most prominent company in provision of ports and logistics services, and remarked that comprehensive studies have been conducted regarding the aforementioned memorandum within recent months, and that the signing of this memorandum is considered a very important event for Tidewater and its shareholders. Noting that the project of development of railway transportation of grain from ports to Aprin Logistics Center is considered a national project, Zarei stated that according to the projections, this project will have significant returns for Tidewater and its shareholders. Moreover, pointing to the complete transfer of the ownership of Tidewater Co. to the private sector in the year 1397 (2018), he expressed his hope that the aforementioned project can become a good example of cooperation between private and public sectors for national projects. According to the Managing Director of Tidewater Middle East, this project will proceed in three different strands, the first of which is in the ports sector, and consists of the completion of the mechanized terminal and the grain silo plans in Bandar Imam Khomeini (r.a.); the Company has invested around 500 billion Tomans on this project to this day. Moreover, another silo will be constructed in Shahid Rajaei Port. He added that in the second strand of this project, 600 wagons will be added to the grain transportation capacity, and in the third strand of this plan, equipping the Aprin Terminal and construction of a silo with the capacity of 350 thousand tons will be put on agenda. Naming this project as the integrated grain transportation project, Zarei counted significant improvements in environmental and health-related issues in grain transportation, as well as the role of the project in increasing the security rate of food in our country as the main benefits of this projects, and considered the suitable projected profitability of the project to be its main benefit for the shareholder of Tidewater Co. In the memorandum, the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways Co. has undertaken to issue the required permits for investment according to the rules and regulations and its legal powers, as well as to locate the lands in question in Aprin Logistics Center, and to transfer the lands the investor for starting the aforementioned projects. Working with the Ports and Maritime Organization to obtain the necessary legal permits for connecting the railways of the docks of Bandar Imam Khomeini (r.a.) and Shahid Rajaei ports to the network in order to increase the traffic of the trains related to the program, and taking necessary measures to enable the investor’s use of financial facilities of the subject matter of article 12 of the Law for Resolving Obstacles to Production, and investor’s access to privileges included under note one to article 66 of the Law for Free Access to the National Railway Network are among the objects of the agreement of the parties in this memorandum.