Political factions wrangle over Tehran Metro
Tehran Times Political Desk

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced his intention to control of Tehran’s metro system causing anger among his political opponents, including Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and son of Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjan, Mohsen Hashemi, who heads the Tehran Metro.

In a televised interview on Wednesday, Nov. 11, while criticizing the state of the traffic jams in the capital, President Ahmadinejad said that his administration plans to take over the control of the Tehran Urban and Suburban Metro Co. from the Tehran municipality.

The latest figures released by the Tehran municipality show citizens of the Iranian capital waste about 20 million hours in traffic jams every day.

The report found Tehran had the worst traffic situation in the entire country and that a rush-hour driver in the capital spends more than 1.5 hours in slow or stopped traffic every day. Over one million people are transported daily by the Middle East’s largest underground railways network.

The running of the Tehran Urban and Suburban Metro Co., which carries more than one million passengers every day, was handed over to the Tehran municipality in 2001. But last week, on a live television show focusing on issues within Tehran, President Ahmadinejad said he had decided to return the running of the metro to the central government.

The president, who was the mayor of Tehran from 2003 to 2005, said he would personally appoint the head of the metro company.

----Opponents

Persian daily the Tehran Emrooz, affiliated to Qalibaf, has criticized President Ahmadinejad’s plans to takeover the metro. On Saturday the daily said the President’s announcement is a deviation from Article 44 of the constitution, which calls for privatization.

On Saturday’s issue the Tehran Emrooz quoted the City Council Chairman, Mehdi Chamran saying the Tehran Metro will be better managed outside the central government’s administration. Chamran says he believes the government should encourage privatization of the network by financing the private sector.

Jafar Rabii, managing director of Tehran Metro Operation Company, a subsidiary of Tehran Metro, attributed the metro delays to technical problems, over crowdedness in the subway stations, and shortage of trains, “but the most important problem is the budget allocated towards the system.”

Mehrdad Lahooti, an MP member of the Majlis Construction Committee said based on Article 136-7 of the third and fourth economic development plan, the administration should hand over government institutions to the municipalities where possible.

Ali Asghar Yousefnejad, an MP member of Urban Management Faction of Majlis says the administration has defaulted on providing the needed budget for the Tehran Metro, thereby creating the main problem. This issue has been politicized and the Tehran residents are the victims of this debate.

On November 15 the City Council of Tehran vetoed the president’s plan, but the government still has the option of offering a bill to the parliament, which, if approved, would give President Ahmadinejad full control over the subway network.

The capital’s metro network is headed by Mohsen Hashemi, the eldest son of the influential politician Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The government has accused Rafsanjani and his two politically active children, Faezeh and Mehdi, of supporting Mir Hussein Mousavi during the presidential election.

In his televised debate with Mousavi a few days before the elections, Ahmadinejad questioned the source of income of Rafsanjani’s children and implied that they had used their father’s influence to accumulate wealth.

Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, a conservative who ran against Ahmadinejad and Rafsanjani in the 2005 elections, also supported Mousavi against the president. Qalibaf’s supporters say he is now being made to pay the price.

Qalibaf and Hashemi have on many occasions accused the government of withholding the budget allocated to the development of the metro as well as the budget for paying ticket subsidies. They say a lack of funding hinders the day-to-day operation of the subway.

Metro tickets in Tehran are heavily subsidized jointly by the government and the municipality, leaving passengers to pay only one quarter of the ticket’s actual value.

In other large Iranian such cities as Mashad, Isfahan and Shiraz, the construction of subway systems is under central government’s control. Ahmadinejad’s critics say in these cases the running of the projects has been very poor.

The Mashad system, which has been overseen by a government-appointed provincial governor, is the only network that has been completed but it is still not operational because of a four-year delay in acquiring the rolling stock, according to the Ayandeh News web portal affiliated to Tehran mayor.

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