TEHRAN - President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated the Golshahr-Hashtgerd metro line in Alborz province, north-central Iran, on Tuesday, in a ceremony attended by senior officials including Transport and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Eslami.

As reported by IRNA, over 10 trillion rials (about $238 million) have been spent on this project which was started in July 2018. 

With this new line going operational, the Hashtgerd Subway Station will be linked to the Golshahr Subway Station in Alborz Province’s center city Karaj (about 26 kilometers away) which is currently the last station of Tehran Metro’s Line 5.

According to the officials, the new section has the capacity to transport 250,000 passengers per day.

Considering the increasing traffic and air pollution in Karaj and its satellite cities, the line can help alleviate both.

Tehran-Shomal Freeway to be inaugurated before Feb.

On the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony, the transport minister told the press that the Tehran-North (Tehran-Shomal) Freeway is going to be inaugurated sooner than scheduled and before the Ten-Day Dawn (which starts on February 1 marking the victory of the Islamic Revolution).

“The construction of Section-1 of the freeway is nearly completed and currently over 3000 people are working to finish the projects sooner than scheduled,” Eslami said.
Back in August, the official had said that sections 2 and 3 of the freeway, had nearly 30 percent of physical development.

The Tehran-North Freeway mega project consists of four phases spanning 121 km in total.

Sections 2 and 3 pass through mountainous terrain, are not easily accessible and will take longer to complete.

Section-4, which is 20 kilometers long and connects Marzanabad in Kelardasht District to Chalous (both in Mazandaran), was inaugurated in March 2014.
Tehran-North Freeway is perhaps one of the most notorious projects in Iran, as it is above 20 years in the making.

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Photo: President Hassan Rouhani inaugurates a new metro line in Alborz Province on Tuesday.