TEHRAN – The parliament has received a letter by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad nominating Housing Minister Ali Nikzad as the infrastructure minister, Omidvar Rezaii of the Majlis presiding board announced on Sunday.

The president has also submitted a bill about the duties and authorities of the infrastructure ministry to the Majlis.
According to the law, the establishment of infrastructure ministry, which is the result of merging housing and transport ministries, requires the parliament’s approval.
In February, Nikzad was appointed as caretaker transport minister following the impeachment of former Transport Minister Hamid Behbahani for poor situation of the aviation industry.
Later, the president said that he will not appoint a new transport minister and will put forward a plan for the merger of the housing and transport ministries.
On May 9, the cabinet approved the merger of eight ministries into four ministries. The cabinet’s ratification envisages the merger of the Transport Ministry with the Housing Ministry, Industries and Mining Ministry with the Commerce Ministry, the Oil Ministry with the Energy Ministry, and the Welfare and Social Security Ministry with the Labor Ministry.
The government says it has planned the merger of ministries in line with the policy of downsizing the government stipulated in the Fifth Five-Year Development Plan (2010-2015).
According to the development plan, the government is obliged to decrease the number of ministries from 21 to 17 to improve the efficiency of the government.