TEHRAN – In a one-day visit to the southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan Province on Thursday, President Ebrahim Raisi inaugurated several infrastructure projects including 11 electricity projects and water supply lines to 155 rural areas.

As IRNA reported, President Raisi also ordered the beginning of the pipe-laying operation at a major project for the transferring of water from the Sea of Oman to the province with the aim of supplying water to the industrial sector in the region.

According to the head of the Sistan-Baluchestan Power Distribution Company, the electricity projects inaugurated by the president were in different sectors including construction, modification, and development of the electricity network.

“Construction and improvement of about 83 kilometers of electricity lines, installation of 26 transformers and a booster device were among the inaugurated projects,” Mohammad Raisi said.

The official put the total investment made in the mentioned electricity projects at 410 billion rials (about $774,681).

The water supply projects also went operational in 19 different cities of the province, according to Alireza Ghasemi, the head of Sistan-Baluchestan Water and Wastewater Company.

According to Ghasemi, the mentioned projects are going to provide drinking water to 66,000 people via pipeline.

The total investment made in the said projects has amounted to 2.910 trillion rials (about $5.5 million), Ghasemi said.

The pipe-laying operation of the project for transferring water from the Sea of Oman to the province was also another project that was started at the order of the president on Thursday.

Speaking to IRNA, Mansour Bijar, the deputy governor of the province said that the national project for desalination and transfer of water from the Sea of Oman is being implemented with a physical progress of 11.3 percent.

He estimated the investment made in the project to be about 60 trillion rials (about $113.3 million).

The executive operations of this national project include a desalination center and its facilities, the water transmission pipelines with a total length of 718 kilometers, the implementation of the route and tunnel for the construction of three pipelines, and finally, the construction of a 1000-megawatt combined cycle power plant for energy supply.

The water desalination plant for the projects will have a capacity of 2.4 million cubic meters per day, and when completed, the pipeline will have the capacity to transfer 280 million cubic meters of water every year.

EF/MA