Iran to Launch Major Infrastructure, Energy Projects Despite Coronavirus Pandemic

Date: 04 April 2020 - 00:04

News ID: ۷۷۲۶۵

TEHRAN (Dispatches) - Iran is planning to spend more than $15 billion on unfinished infrastructure projects and to launch dozens of major electricity and water projects in the new Persian calendar year which started late March.
The head of the Plan and Budget Organization Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said the Iranian government is planning to spend more than $15 billion on unfinished infrastructure projects.
Nobakht said that the spending would enable the government to finish more than $15 billion worth of construction projects during the year that ends in late March 2021.
The government plans to launch more than 5,000 projects in the current Iranian calendar year, which started Friday, March 20.
Those projects are expected to cost some $60 billion with the government vowing to provide at least 70 percent of the investment needed to finish the projects.
Iran uses various sources to finance its massive energy projects, including funds provided by private or semi-governmental contractors, loans obtained from other countries or international institutions and emergency lifelines provided by Iran’s sovereign wealth fund.
Iran’s Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian on Friday said that his country is going to launch dozens of major electricity and water projects despite financial and logistics problems that has come as a result of a novel coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Ardakanian said that a total of 38 projects will be opened in 15 provinces in the next three months.
The minister said the projects would be worth 60.82 trillion rials (nearly $400 million) and would include power plants and water treatment facilities.
He said launching the projects means that Iran would continue building out its infrastructure despite the financial woes under the current circumstances.
"This year, the corona(virus) disease has cast its shadow on the country but inauguration of this projects would be a sign that no obstacle would incapacitate the determination of the Iranians for development,” said the minister.
Having to cope with a series of harsh U.S. sanctions that has hampered its access to drugs and medical gear, Iran is struggling to contain the coronavirus outbreak, which has infected nearly 20,000 people.
Earlier this month, the energy ministry finished a nationwide campaign for launching 227 key infrastructure projects over a time span of less than six months.
The projects that cost around $2.2 billion included electricity plants and water and sewage facilities in various provinces.
Spending on massive infrastructure projects come as the Iranian government is struggling with strained finances both as a result of the American sanctions, which have specifically targeted the country’s sale of oil, and because of growing threats of a coronavirus pandemic which has affected tens of thousands of people in the country.
The government has indicated that sanctions and other economic problems should not cause a halt to infrastructure development, especially for those projects deemed as critical to the diversification of the economy away from oil.
Some key road and rail projects were opened across Iran over the winter, including a costly section of a highway connecting the capital Tehran to the costs of the Caspian Sea in the north.
Another project was a key railway link that was opened in December in northwest of the country to boost international transportation through Iran’s rail corridors.