BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 10
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
About 500 km of controlled-access highway and 700 km of highway roads will be commissioned in Iran by time of the current government is done with its duties (the current government has been in power since 2013 and will expire in August next year), said Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami in a speech at the Iranian parliament, Trend reports citing the Iranian Parliament’s official website.
According to Eslami, at present, the length of Iran's controlled-access highways is 2,470 kilometers, and the length of highways is 18,400 kilometers.
Eslami added that so far, 113,000 rural roads have been paved in Iran, and 3,500 kilometers of rural roads will be paved by the end of the current government.
The minister said that 465 million tons of cargo is transported annually by roads in Iran.
"The length of Iran's railways is 14,700 kilometers, and an investigation is underway into the construction of this length of railway," he said.
Eslami said that at present, 47 million tons of cargo is transported annually by rail in Iran, and the capacity of Iranian ports is 246 million tons per year.