TEHRAN – Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said on Monday that 53 major water and electricity projects have gone operational in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 20) under the framework of the ministry’s A-B-Iran program.

Speaking in the inauguration ceremony of 15 energy-related projects in Tehran province during the 14th week of the mentioned program, Ardakanian put the total investment made in the mentioned projects at 147.25 trillion rials (about $3.5 billion), IRNA reported.

According to the official, in the second phase of the A-B-Iran scheme (the acronyms A and B stand for water and electricity in Persian) 250 projects are going to be inaugurated by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2021).

The official noted that a total of 500 trillion rials (about $11.9 billion) of investment will be made in the mentioned 250 projects.

Ardakanian had earlier said that 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 a pipeline to more than 1400 rural areas across the country.

Since the beginning of the second phase of the scheme in the current Iranian calendar year, every week several energy projects have gone operational across the country.

A-B-Iran program was initiated in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19), during which the minister made 31 trips to various provinces for inaugurating over 220 major projects with a total investment of 335.6 trillion rials (about $7.99 billion).

EF/MA