TEHRAN – Iranian cabinet approved €2b finance proposed by Planning and Budget Organization (PBO) for implementation of four power plant and railway projects, IRNA reported.

Approved during a Sunday meeting of the cabinet, the mentioned finance includes €353 million for a project to renovate and modernize Ramin Power Plant in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, €280 million for a project to boost generation capacity of Gatvand Hydroelectric Power Plant in southwestern province of Khuzestan, €700 million for building Zahedan-Birjand railway and connecting it to Bafq-Mashhad railway, and €667 million for a project to supply city and inter-city wagons and equip them.

Based on the cabinet’s newly approved plan, the mentioned €2-billion finance will be provided in a 10-year period and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, as the representative of the government, is authorized to sign the finance allocation deals.

As reported, the approved plan has been declared to the related organizations by the First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri.

As previously announced by the PBO head, 430 trillion rials (about $10.2 billion) is going to be allocated for development projects in the next year’s budget plan, up 53 percent from the figure for the current year.

“We intend to invest as much as we can in development sector in the next [Iranian calendar] year (starts on March 19, 2020), so we have increased the budget for this sector by 53 percent to achieve significant growth,” Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said.

The official had also announced that the government is going to allocate all revenues from oil sales to the development projects following structural reforms in the next Iranian calendar year’s budget bill.

MA/MA