Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has inaugurated 13 major road and airport projects with a government investment of nearly $121 million.
Rouhani on Thursday used a video conference call to roll out the projects, which included major roads bypassing heavily-populated Iranian cities.
Rouhani’s office said a total of 31.43 trillion rials had been spent on the projects to help expand the transportation sector in Iran.
The Iranian president said during the inauguration ceremony that American sanctions on Iran had undermined his administration’s plans to renovate the entire transportation fleet in the country.
“If it was not for the viciousness of the incumbent US administration, the government had carried out planning for renovation of the entire road, rail and air transportation fleet,” said Rouhani, adding, however, that fleet renovation has continued at a slower pace in recent years.
He promised that nine major highway projects would finish in the early month of the next calendar year beginning March 2021.
Among projects opened on Thursday was the final section of an east-west corridor passing along the Persian Gulf coast, a 100-kilometer road in the province of Hormozgan, as well as two bypasses around the cities of Isfahan and Kerman, located in central and southeastern Iran, respectively.
Airport projects included renovation and expansion schemes at five airports in the cities of Gorgan, Shahroud, Mashahd, Isfahan and Tabriz.