TEHRAN - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, on Thursday, inaugurated eight electricity and water projects in the southern province Bushehr and northwestern West Azarbaijan province via video conference.

The projects included the first steam unit of the Assaluyeh combined cycle power plant in Bushehr and the Oshnavieh Dam in West Azarbaijan, as well as some development projects to improve and optimize the power distribution networks in both provinces.

As reported, the steam unit of the Assaluyeh combined cycle power plant which was implemented with 22.4 trillion rials (over $533 million) of investment is going to create direct jobs for 800 people.

The implementation of this unit is going to increase the efficiency of the power plant up to 50 percent from its current 33 percent.

Over 2.44 trillion rials (about $58 million) has also been invested in the Oshnavieh Dam project.

A total 26.3 trillion rials (over $626 million) has been invested in the eight projects inaugurated in the mentioned provinces; the projects will create direct employment for 1,687 people.

Earlier this year, Iran’s Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said following a program called “A-B-Iran”, the ministry is going to inaugurate 250 major water and electricity projects worth 500 trillion rials (about $11.9 billion) during the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2021).

According to Ardakanian, in the water sector, the mentioned projects include nine major dams, implementation of modern irrigation systems in 54,000 hectares of land, 20 water, and wastewater treatment plants and supplying drinkable water through pipeline to more than 1400 rural areas across the country.

According to the A-B-Iran scheme [the acronyms A and B stand for water, electricity in Persian], Energy Ministry plans to inaugurate some water, electricity projects across the country every week.

Back in May, Ardakanian inaugurated six electricity projects in Markazi Province in central Iran through video conference.

The mentioned projects were inaugurated in the third week of the implementation of “A-B-Iran” program.

During the 20 weeks of the mentioned program in the previous year, the minister made 31 trips to various provinces for inaugurating energy projects.

EF/MA