MASHHAD Iran Khodro, the pioneer auto manufacturer of Iran, on Saturday announced the start of the construction of a branch of the factory at Binaloud, 45km southwest of Mashhad. Iran Khodro Managing Director Manouchehr Gharavi said at the groundbreaking ceremony that the company will spend Rls.300 billion on construction of the first stage of the plant. He said that the plant will come on stream within 30 months and produce 50,000 pickup vans and a new model of motor-car in the initial phase. Gharavi said that the plant will employ 2,000 technicians directly and, taking into account the private sector manufacturing spare parts for the cars, about 40,000 people in Khorasan Province will be engaged in the auto industry. He said Iran Khodro is seriously following up expert studies by 470 technicians to upgrade the quality of its products and would produce an updated version of the automobile in the newly projected plant. Minister of Housing and Urban Development Ali Abdolalizadeh who was present at the ceremony hailed Iran Khodro plan to build a new plant in Khorasan Province as an action to decentralize the industry and help achieve an even distribution of population. He said that his ministry has drawn up a national plan to spread out industrial sites to help ease the influx of workforce to Tehran. Abdolalizadeh said that the Housing and Urban Development Ministry will build 800 residential units for rent to Iran Khodro workers in the new township where the plant is being built. He hoped that the plan to distribute the population evenly would be achieved in Iran by the Iranian year 1400 (2021). Governor General of Khorasan Province Mohsen Mehr-Alizadeh in his statement in the ceremony appreciated Iran Khodro's action in setting up a plant in the province. He said the plan is significant both in terms of the economic advantage and decentralization of the industry. Mehr-Alizadeh said that the province enjoys large expert workforce and the private sector would support Iran Khodro by providing spare parts. Meanwhile, Gharavi said on the sidelines of the ceremony that the technology of manufacturing spare parts has developed in Iran to the extent that Iran is the exporter of spare parts for the foreign auto manufacturers. He lambasted those who advocate import of automobiles and said that Iran Khodro is now producing Peugeot Safir, an updated version of Peugeot 405 which is environment friendly and is in concord with the standard of the foreign-made cars. Elaborating on the quality of Peugeot Safir, he said that Iran Khodro has received applications from foreign enterprises to import Iranian-made Peugeot Safir automobiles.

(IRNA)