TEHRAN (Iran News) – The projects for supplying electricity to 62 villages in 16 provinces were inaugurated by Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian in a ceremony on Tuesday.
The projects were inaugurated in the framework of the ministry’s “A-B-Iran” program in Ardebil, Ilam, East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan, Kerman, North Khorasan, South Khorasan, Khorasan Razavi, Khuzestan, Sistan-Baluchestan, Mazandaran, Qazvin, Kermanshah, Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad, Lorestan and Yazd provinces.
Ardakanian had announced last month that electricity will be supplied to the villages with less than 10 families in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 20).
The minister said that power supply to these villages and also supplying electricity to the nomadic areas through mobile solar panels are among the major priorities of the ministry’s A-B-Iran program.
A-B-Iran program (the acronyms A and B stand for water and electricity in Persian) was initiated in the Iranian calendar year 1398 (ended on March 19, 2020), during which the minister made several trips to various provinces for inaugurating over 220 major projects with a total investment of 335.6 trillion rials (about $7.99 billion).
Villages are often mentioned as some keys to the development of countries, and the allocation of a proper amount of budget to rural development always brings fruitful economic results.
In Iran, where villages account for generating 20-23 percent of the value added in the country, development of rural areas has been always a top agenda of the governments’ activities.
The sustainable economic, social, and cultural development of the villages is one of the major priorities of the current government, and many projects implemented and underway in this regard have led to outstanding development in the rural regions.
It is while the sanctions have created many limitations and difficulties for the Iranian economy in recent years.
One of the sectors with noticeable achievements in this field is gas supplying, while the number of villages supplied with natural gas has doubled during the past eight years since the current government started its activity.
The current government has paid 290 trillion rials (about $6.904 billion) for supplying gas to the rural areas.
It should be noted that supplying gas to the villages has been a big help for the development of infrastructures, the establishment of complementary industries, and job creation in these areas.
The supply of drinking water to the villages has been also expedited by the current government, especially since the Iranian calendar year 1398 (March 2019-March 2020).
Under the framework of a program titled A-B-Iran, the Energy Ministry has inaugurated many projects to supply drinking water to the rural areas.
