TEHRAN- Some 28 airport development projects are planned to be implemented in the country by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2021), IRIB reported, quoting an official with Iran Airports Company (IAC).

According to Mohammad-Reza Zahmatkeshan, there are currently 51 development projects underway in the country’s airports, of which 28 will be inaugurated by the end of the current year.

Back in May, President Hassan Rouhani, Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami, IAC Managing Director Siavash Amirmokri, and other officials inaugurated two new airport development projects via videoconference.

The first project was the new runway at Ramsar International Airport in the northern Mazandaran Province; with the new runway, medium freight aircraft, including Airbus 320, can land and take off at the airport.

The second was the expansion of Sari International Airport's apron, the Ministry of Transport and Urban Development's news service reported.

As Amirmokri announced previously, IAC plans to inaugurate 21 aviation projects worth 10 trillion rials ($56.65 million) in the current fiscal year.

The company has also 12 projects worth €9.2 million on its agenda for the upcoming years.

As previously announced by the Transport Minister Eslami, airport capacity in the country has increased by 10 million passengers since 2013.

Last month, the minister said that various projects had been completed in 15 Iranian airports over the past six years with an investment of around 20 trillion rials (about $476 million), Press TV reported.

The minister said plans are in place for adding new terminals and runways to the existing airports across Iran to further increase the capacity of the airports by another 10 million passengers per year.

“These airport projects include the passenger terminal, runway, control tower, radar system, and navigation system,” he said, adding that finishing those projects would greatly boost aviation safety in Iran.

Iranian airports currently have the capacity to handle more than 60 million passengers a year.

EF/MA