TEHRAN – Nearly 700 water and electricity supply projects were put into operation across Iran through a video conference on Monday, the portal of the Energy Ministry known as Paven reported.

The mentioned projects were inaugurated in a ceremony attended by President Ebrahim Raisi and Energy Minister Ali-Akbar Mehrabian on the occasion of the 43rd anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

The said projects include 211 electricity supply projects valued at two trillion rials (about $8.16 million) as well as water supply to 480 villages with a total population of 250,000 people.

Providing portable solar power stations for 10,630 nomadic households with a total investment of one trillion rials (about $4.08 million) and developing and improving the electricity networks of 4,500 villages under the framework of Baharestan project with a total investment of over 17 trillion rials (about $69.4 million) were also among the projects officially put into operation by President Raisi.

As reported, the mentioned projects were inaugurated in 21 provinces including East Azarbaijan, Kermanshah, Qazvin, Khuzestan, and North Khorasan.

Over the last 43 years, every week 24 villages have been connected to the national power grid on average, and the number of villages with access to electricity in the country has increased from 1367 villages before the Islamic Revolution to 13,966 villages.

Currently over 99.7 percent of the Iranian population has access to the national electricity network, while the average electricity access in the world is 85 percent.

Every year, during the Ten-Day Dawn celebrations, numerous infrastructure projects are inaugurated or commenced to mark the development of the country after the revolution.

Earlier in January, Iranian Energy Ministry had announced plans to implement over 10,000 water supply projects in rural areas across the country in the next four years

According to Shahin Pakrouh, the parliament and the government are currently collaborating in order to secure the necessary funding for the implementation of the mentioned projects.

EF/MA