Eight construction and development projects were inaugurated at the Imam Khomeini Airport City in Tehran on Thursday.
Roads and Urban Development Minister Abbas Akhoundi, Managing Director of Iran Airports Company Rahmatollah Mahabadi and Managing Director of Imam Khomeini Airport City Company Shahram Adamnejad attended the inauguration ceremony.
The eight projects included a fire department building, a security building, an administrative office building for Terminal 1, an eastern pier for Terminal 1, a passenger apron, a cargo apron and a visa processing area.
“The fact is IKAC's development is the largest national project in Iran. The project is definitely larger than all projects of oil, gas, and communications,” Akhoundi said during the ceremony.
The minister noted that one of the most important points considered in the development of IKAC is to develop three modes of transportation, namely rail, road and air, in the airport city.
“We changed the route of Tehran-Isfahan high-speed railroad and it is now linked to the airport,” he said.
"Another important plan is to connect IKAC with road transportation. A major project being carried out in the south of airport city, which is Iran’s first bypass expressway with a speed limit of 130 km/h, will connect Abyek in Qazvin Province to Charmshahr."
The minister believes that the development of IKAC has a key role in plans to relocate Tehran’s major cargo delivery point to the south of IKAC.
This means 800 hectares of land in Tehran will be freed and prevent the entry of 25,000 heavy duty vehicles into Tehran, which have a high share in traffic and air pollution.
Akhoundi told Financial Tribune that 90,000 square meters of apron were added to the cargo section of the airport as well as 111,000 square meters to the passenger apron in the western part of the airport.
In addition, over 2,000 square meters have been allocated for ingoing and outgoing passengers for resting and transit purposes.
The minister explained that the new visa processing area will help foreign passengers easily obtain visas, get insurance, pay duties, arrange accommodation, etc. at one place.
There are also more schemes to provide hardware and software systems to the airport to increase capacity and improve services.
Speaking on the sidelines of the ceremony, the minister, along with other officials and reporters, paid a visit to Salam Terminal to inspect the final stages of the terminal's construction.
According to Adamnejad, the terminal has made 95% progress.
“We’re trying to make the terminal ready to offer services to passengers by the end of this summer,” he added.
Salam Terminal’s passenger capacity was first planned to be 1.5 million per year but changes in the airport’s design increased the capacity to 4.5 million passengers per year.
Plans are underway to construct another terminal at the airport. Iranshahr Terminal’s first development phase has been designed to handle 25 million passengers per year, which will reach 110 million passengers in its third and final phase.
IKIA presently has a passenger capacity of around five million per year. However, in the last Iranian year (March 2017-18), the airport hosted over nine million passengers.
In an exclusive interview with Financial Tribune in June, Adamnejad said the airport’s passenger capacity will reach 120 million per year upon the completion of the two terminals.
Located 30 kilometers from Tehran, IKAC is spread over 14,000 hectares.
