TEHRAN -- The Kermanshah Industrial Towns Company plans to establish an industrial town named Hersin, which will breach the territory determined by UNECSO for the Bisotun ancient site.

However, Kermanshah Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department director Asadollah Biravand and Bisotun Grand Project managing director Maliheh Mehdiabadi said that they have not been informed about this, the Persian service of CHN reported on Wednesday.

Bisotun, an ancient Iranian site bearing bas-reliefs and inscriptions of Darius the Great, was registered on UNESCO’s World Heritage List on July 13 during the 30th session of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee held in Vilnius, Lithuania.

“Construction of Hersin was approved by the Planning Council of the province (Kermanshah) last year, and this industrial town will be established on 90 hectares beside the village of Bazanabad, located three kilometers away from Bisotun,” Kermanshah Industrial Towns Company financial manager Kiumars Razzaqi said.

However, no license has been issued for the construction of any town, Biravand said.

Mehdiabadi said, “So far, we have not received any application for construction of any factory in this region. The national and world demarcations of the site are absolutely clear. All companies and governmental organizations were informed about the national demarcation in April 2005. Thus, I don’t think any organization or company will engage in the construction of any building here.

“UNESCO has determined 250 square kilometers of territory for Bisotun, and Bazanabad village is located in this area.”

Construction projects had previously caused difficulties for the registration of Bisotun on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, but Kermanshah provincial officials and cultural heritage officials eventually reached a consensus that all construction projects would be prohibited in the region and that companies that had been active in the area would transfer their work elsewhere.