Qalibaf says the government has not allocated the agreed annual $4 billion for the expansion of Tehran's public transportation system. Tehran's Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf has asked the Leader to oblige the government to financially support the completion of Tehran's subway system.

In a letter sent to the office of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Tehran's mayor said the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has not abided by a Parliament bill, which was approved last year and allowed the government to use part of the country's foreign exchange reserves to complete and modernize the city's subway system.
The government was obliged to allocate $4 billion annually for the expansion of Tehran's public transportation system, including the subway system, Qalibaf said.
“The City Council has received financial supported since the (Ahmadinejad) government came to office (in 2005),” he said.
Last week, the head of Tehran's Railway Company Mohsen Hashemi said the completion of the city's subway system is four years behind schedule due to the government's lack of financial support.
So far, only three lines (1, 2, 5) of the planned seven lines in Tehran's subway system have been completed while about 70 percent of Line 4 is finished, Hashemi said.
Hashemi added that Lines 3 and 4 would long have become fully operational if the government had financed the plans.
An estimated 1.5 million people in Tehran use the subway for their daily commute. The completion of the subway has been one of Qalibaf's key plans to reduce the Iranian capital's long traffic jams.
(Source: Press TV)