Teheran railway gets Chinese backing

The Iranian news agency says a Chinese company Nurinco has agreed to finance a multi-million dollar underground railway linking two western suburbs of the capital, Teheran.

It says Iranian government officials associated with the scheme expect the one-hundred-million dollar railway to encourage more housing in Teheran's suburbs as travel becomes easier on the three-station line. The agency says the project, which is subject to repayment guarantees from the Iranian state bank, could begin later this year.

It is expected to take four years to complete.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service