Water, electricity projects worth nearly $215m inaugurated in 8 provinces
Water, electricity projects worth nearly $215m inaugurated in 8 provinces
Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian on Wednesday inaugurated 24 major water and electricity industry projects valued at 9.028 trillion rials (about $214.9 million) through video conference in eight provinces.

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian on Wednesday inaugurated 24 major water and electricity industry projects valued at 9.028 trillion rials (about $214.9 million) through video conference in eight provinces.

Put into operation in the 12th week of the ministry’s A-B-Iran program in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21), the said projects were inaugurated in Kohgiluyeh-Boyer Ahmad, Khuzestan, Bushehr, Ardebil, Kerman, East Azarbaijan, Fars, and Mazandaran provinces.

As reported by the Energy Ministry portal Paven, nine of the mentioned projects including three solar power plants and six projects for the development of electricity transmission network worth 1.59 trillion rials (about $37.8 million) were put into operation In Khuzestan province.

Four electricity transmission projects valued at 1.5 trillion rials (about $35.9 million) were also inaugurated in Kohgiluyeh-Boyer Ahmad province, while four other electricity network development projects worth 850 billion rials (about $22 million) went operational in Bushehr province.

In East Azarbaijan, Ardebil and Fars provinces, three electricity industry projects worth 2.83 trillion rials (about $67.3 million) and in Mazandaran province, one water project valued at 230 billion rials (about $5.47 million) were also put into operation.

Under the framework of the A-B-Iran program, the Energy Ministry has inaugurated many projects to supply drinking water to the country’s rural areas.

The first phase of the 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 220 major projects with a total investment of 335.6 trillion rials (about $7.99 billion) were put into operation across the country.

In the second phase of the program that was carried out in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20) 250 water and energy projects worth 500 trillion rials (about $11.9 billion) were inaugurated in several provinces.

The third phase of the program was officially started on April 6 and like the previous phases, this year, too, the Energy Ministry is planning to inaugurate numerous water and electricity projects in various provinces every week.

According to Ardakanian, since the beginning of the third phase of the program in the current calendar year 65 major energy projects worth 150 trillion rials (over $3.57 billion) have gone operational across the country.

Last week, President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated several water and electricity industry projects valued at over $7.5 billion through video conference during the 11th week of the A-B-Iran program.