TEHRAN – President Masoud Pezeshkian and senior government officials on Monday inaugurated the completion of a section of the so-called Tehran-North Freeway, a protracted road project that is meant to shorten the road trip from the capital city, through the Alborz mountain range, to the northern regions of Iran in Mazandaran Province.
The ceremony was also attended by Minister of Roads and Urban Development Farzaneh Saedgh, along with Hussain Dehghan, the head of Mostazafan Foundation (Bonyad), the contractor and major stakeholder in the project.
On the sidelines of the ceremony, Minister of Roads Sadegh said the eastern lane of section 2 of the Tehran-North Freeway, with is 15.5 kilometers long, was inaugurated. This section will help reduce traffic and save fuel consumption, so that 7.5 million liters of fuel will be saved annually.” 
She continued: “Of the total length of this route, about 11.5 kilometers have been constructed in the form of tunnels and galleries; in other words, the heart of the mountain was cut with utmost care and in compliance with environmental requirements.” Also, 12 bridges with a length of about 1.4 kilometers have been built in this project, some of which are curved, and have demonstrated the peak of the country’s engineering knowledge.
With the operation of this lane, the speed of vehicles will reach 70 kilometers per hour and approximately 7.5 million liters of fuel will be saved.
A final section of the road, a short drive between Marzanabad and Chalus, was finished in March 2013. The current government has promised it would spend some $150 million to open another 22 kilometers of the road next year.
Initial construction work on Tehran-North Freeway, with four phases (sections), began around 29 years ago.