TEHRAN- The national budget law for the current Iranian calendar year (March 2017-March 2018) has allocated 80 trillion rials (about $2.1 billion) for implementing 411 transport projects across the country, the deputy transport minister announced on Wednesday.

As IRNA quoted Amir Amini, most of the projects are semi-finished.

By the end of the Sixth Five-Year Socio-Economic Development Plan (March 2021), 5,000 kilometers of highways and 1,000 kilometers of railroads will be constructed by domestic private sector, he added.  

Expressing hope about the expansion of infrastructure projects in road sector, Amini said that by the present time, 15,000 investment contracts have been signed with private sector on development of railway, highways, and air transportation in Iran.

During President Hassan Rouhani’s first tenure, started in August 2013, 470 trillion rials (about $11.9 billion) of investments have been made in the country’s railway projects by domestic private sector, while the current unfinished projects in this sector worth 670 trillion rials (about $17.7 billion), he added.

HJ/MA