TEHRAN (Iran News) –Caretaker of Imam Khomeini Airport City Company says 8 Chinese and 4 Iranian companies have announced their readiness for construction of the Terminal No.3 of Imam Khomeini Airport and talks are underway.

In a press conference, Saeed Chalandari said that by the yearend, the contract for construction of the Terminal No.3 of Imam Khomeini Airport will be signed, adding that so far 8 Chinese and 4 Iranian companies have announced readiness for its construction.

He added that the Strategic Council should decide whether the contractors are chosen via holding tenders or from among the current volunteer companies. He noted that currently 15 projects worth of 3,000b rials are underway and 2,120b tomans of the amount is financed by the domestic resources and the remaining 875b tomans will be financed by the private sector and based on BOT.

Chalandari went on to say that 18 projects worth of 3b euros are ready for investment and its feasible studies have started and one project is related to the Terminal No.3. He said that the terminal is to be built on an area around 410,000 square meters and it will be a combination for the domestic and international flights. He noted that after construction of this terminal, domestic and international flights will be carried out simultaneously like most airports in the world and it will help one of the problems of Iranian airlines to be resolved. Currently some 11 domestic and 23 foreign airlines fly from Imam Khomeini Airport to 50 destinations in 28 countries.

He then touched upon the visits of football fans to Qatar to watch World Cup matches and said that the company has tried to resolve the problems of the World Cup ticket-holders and most of the problems have been resolved.

He said that on Sunday there were 6 flights between Tehran-Doha by Qatar Airways and IranAir has requested for 58 flights and it is now unknown how many of these flights will take place.

Chalandaeri admitted there are some problems in the airport and said that the company is working hard to resolve them. He added that one of the problems is the passport control gates which are manual and sometimes, because of the huge number of the passengers, long lines are formed and the company is trying to solve it.

He went on to say that the city faces water shortage and there are 8 wells for irrigating the green space of the airport and unfortunately they have all dried.