TEHRAN – Insufficient funds for development of the projects in the energy sector is the major challenge the Energy Ministry is facing with, a report quoted Iran’s Energy Minister Parviz Fattah as saying on Friday.

The ministry’s fund requirements for the current financial year (Iranian year started March 21) was reduced by half in Majlis (the parliament), noted the minister. He predicted that the cabinet would possibly in August propose to the Majlis its amending bill for the development objectives.

Handing over the unfinished projects to the private sector or foreign investors are among high priorities of the Energy Ministry, he said adding, the trend could help the ministry get rid of the bottlenecks it is currently facing.

Terming the ministry as a debt-ridden organization, Fattah announced that in regard to the power plant building, the policy followed by his ministry was based on supporting the private sector. He explained that agreements had been concluded on the generation of 14,000 megawatts of electricity on a Build Own and Operate (BOO) basis as well as the production of 500,000 megawatts on a Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis.

Elsewhere in his comments he elaborated on the building of the hydro-electric power plants, expecting that the capacity of the electricity generation of the power plants would be doubled by the end of the current cabinet’s tenure.