TEHRAN – Head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) has announced that 16 major projects worth over $267 million are going to be inaugurated in the country’s ports by the end of the current week, IRNA reported.

According to Mohammad Rastad, some 6.876 trillion rials (about $163 million) plus 87.9 million euros has been invested in the said projects, of which about 382 billion rials (about $9.05 million) has been provided by the private sector.

Of these 16 projects, two projects have been carried out by the private sector investors in Imam Khomeini port and other projects have been implemented by the Ports and Maritime Organization, the official explained.

“These projects are in various fields including infrastructure, buildings, vessels, port equipment, maritime safety, port security, maritime transport facilitation, and maritime reference buildings,” he added.

According to Rastad, the mentioned projects are located in Hormozgan, Khuzestan, Bushehr, and Mazandaran provinces.

Six of the projects will be inaugurated in Hormozgan Province, including a wharf post, three oil wharf posts, a vessel, a hyper-suction dredger vessel, a marine reference building, and a fire alarm system.

Projects in Khuzestan province also include multi-purpose warehouses for storage of goods, a hyper-suction dredger vessel.

A 60-ton mobile crane, a sailors club building (in Amirabad), a fire station, a corn flour and concentrate factory, and a CCTV and electronic protection system are among the projects that will be inaugurated in Mazandaran Province, according to Rastad.

Iranian Transport Ministry has been taking serious measures for supporting development projects in the country’s ports and in this regard the ministry has been cooperating with domestic companies for supplying the equipment and machinery needed in such projects.

Earlier this year, Transport Minister Mohammad Eslami had announced that the capacity of the country’s commercial ports is going to be increased to 500 million tons over the next five years, to make Iran one of the biggest trade hubs in the region.

Also in April, Rastad said that his organization plans to take all the necessary measures for supporting the companies active in various maritime sectors during the current Iranian calendar year (began on March 21).

“In line with the current year’s motto which is “Production: support and the elimination of obstacles”, PMO has put it on the agenda to provide necessary supports for producers in order to facilitate the process of import and export of goods in the country’s ports,” Rastad said.

EF/MA