TEHRAN- Some 190 infrastructure and development projects worth over 520 trillion rials (about $12.38 billion) have been inaugurated in 15 provinces of Iran during 15 weeks since the start of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20), IRNA reported on Tuesday.

As reported, in 13 out of the mentioned 15 weeks, the projects were inaugurated by President Hassan Rouhani via video conference.

These projects, which are in energy, industry, mining, agriculture, housing, and communication sectors, are mainly aimed at materializing the current year’s motto of “Surge in Production”.

A big number of the projects were inaugurated in the framework of the Energy Ministry’s A-B-Iran scheme, based on which every week several energy projects are inaugurated across the country.

A-B-Iran scheme [the acronyms A and B stand for water, electricity in Persian] was initiated in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19), during which Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian 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).

Earlier this year, Ardakanian said in the second phase of the program the ministry is going to inaugurate 250 major energy projects worth 500 trillion rials (about $11.9 billion) during the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2021).

Some other projects were put into operation in the framework of a similar program named “Persistent Production-Effective Employment-Sustainable Exports” launched by the Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry.

Based on this program, the ministry plans to inaugurate 200 industrial, mining, and trade projects across the country by the Iranian calendar year of 1400 (begins on March 21, 2021).

As reported, a total of 1.69 quadrillion rials (about $40.23 billion) has been invested in these projects that are going to create job opportunities for 41,000 people.

The mentioned program has been defined by the Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry in line with the government’s new strategies for developing the country’s infrastructure in order to realize the “Surge in Production” motto.

MA/MA